Avatar vs Terminator
by Q42
Summary: John Connor and the Human Resistance defeated Skynet on Earth. So, the Machines sought another world. Another timeline. One in which the natives would not even know of their existence … until the Machines attacked.
1. Timeline 283C

Avatar vs. Terminator

By Q42

----

Heh, I just couldn't resist mixing my two favorite James Cameron movieverses. :P

John Connor and the Human Resistance defeated Skynet on Earth. So, the Machines sought another world. Another timeline. One in which the natives would not even know of their existence … until the Machines attacked.

-----

Chapter 1:

Pandora, June 7, 2165

Timeline 283-C

-----

On the lush jungle moon Pandora, nighttime is anything but dark. As Alpha Centauri A sets each evening, the light reflected from Polyphemus suffuses the world with a soft blue glow. Then, sensing the decrease in light levels, every living creature on Pandora takes part in the most brilliant light show in the Galaxy. Even the plants glow with bioluminescence, bathing the area around them in green, blue, orange and violet.

Tonight, however, a new light appeared in the jungle.

Arcs of electricity flashed, outshining the glowing leaves. Some of the bolts struck dry bark, setting one unlucky tree aflame.

Then, from out of nowhere, a silver sphere expanded into being. Amid the glowing foliage, the alien object gleamed, mirror-like, its bottom just touching the forest floor.

As suddenly as it had begun, the phenomenon ceased. Where the sphere had been, a figure crouched on a patch of baked soil.

Slowly, almost tentatively, the figure uncurled, rising to stand on its four-toed feet. Had anyone been nearby, they would have seen a rather striking Na'vi woman step out of the glowing crater in the ground, her golden eyes sweeping quickly from side to side. In fact, aside from the fact that she had stepped out of a hole in space-time, the only unusual thing about the woman was her lack of clothing; not even a hair bead adorned her braids.

Looking about, the blue-skinned female slowly made her way toward a tree. Then, lithe and nimble, she leaped up into the branches. A few minutes' climbing brought her high into the canopy, above most of the other trees. From her new vantage point, she could see for miles across the sea of luminous leaves. Far in the distance, a cluster of white lights stood out atop a hill, casting a distinctly artificial glow: Hell's Gate, home to the handful of human beings who had been allowed to remain on Pandora.

The newcomer regarded the human colony for a few moments. Then, leaping from her perch, she dropped toward the forest floor, using the largest leaves to slow her descent. Landing cat-footed, the woman wasted no time, taking off toward Hell's Gate as fast as her long, well-toned legs would carry her.

The last battle of the Machine War would be fought here, in this time, on this world. And nothing would keep her from victory….

-----

A flash of white light, a burst of energy, and ten miles away, a lone figure lay curled on the ground, naked as a newborn and gasping for air.

))WARNING: CHEMICAL ATTACK IN PROGRESS

The crimson words flashed across his vision. The man's blue eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets, his chest heaving as he tried to breathe. "Wha … what the … _hell…?"_

))EXTERNAL FILTRATION AIDS UNAVAILABLE

))ACTIVATING HEMOLYTIC FILTRATION SYSTEMS

))ADJUSTING HOST BIOCHEMISTRY

))PLEASE WAIT….

The writhing man struggled to stand. His mouth, nose and eyes all felt as though he was breathing fire.

Then, suddenly, the pain was gone.

))ADAPTATION COMPLETE

))TISSUE REPAIR COMMENCING

The figure groaned, slowly rising to his feet. "God damn! What the hell was that?"

))ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION: 50% N2, 20% O2, 19% CO2, 5.5% Xe

))AIR PRESSURE 0.9 ATM

The man blinked twice, shaking his head until the text disappeared. "All right, that was freaky."

As he stood up, he surveyed his surroundings. It must have been nighttime, but everything – literally, _everything_ around him – was glowing with crazy colors. It looked like he had wound up in some kind of radioactive jungle, where the plants acted like those funky constellation stickers that you put under a black light. _Well, it could be worse,_ he thought to himself. _At least these things look better than the bars on death row._ "Now, just where the hell _am_ I?"

"_Tawtute! Ne kllte!"*_

The man spun around, eyes widening in shock as three very tall, nearly naked, and very _blue_ men dropped from the trees above, brandishing spears, bows and arrows. All three were dressed like they'd been auditioning as extras for _Dancing with Wolves_, but had been rejected due to their excessive height, tails, and just plain alienness. "What the—?"

"_Ne kllte! Set!"**_ shouted the lead warrior, his enormous yellow eyes narrowed in anger.

"Uh, look, guys," said the human, backing slowly away. "I'd love to do whatever it is you're telling me to, but I honestly don't know what that is."

The lead warrior growled menacingly, advancing toward the human … then stopped dead in his tracks, his anger instantly giving way to a look of shock. _"Jakesully?!?"_ he exclaimed _"F'lu ke lu!"***_

The man held up his hands. "Look, does anybody here speak English? You know, like good old American English? Because I really need to talk to somebody."

"You're right, you _do_ need to talk to somebody," a strangely familiar voice called down from the trees. With a loud rustling of leaves and branches, a fourth blue giant dropped down to the forest floor, an enormous bow clutched in his hand. "First, you need to explain how you're breathing without an exopack. Second, you need to tell me how many other humans are here with you. And third…"

The alien froze just a few feet in front of the human, his eyes widening in astonishment. "_Tom?_ Wha—?"

"_Olo'eyktan, __fyape tsatseng mune nga?__"**** _whispered one of the warriors.

All five men looked about at one another. The blue warriors were clearly freaked out about something, and the human was freaked out that they were freaked out. "Uh … hey, could somebody please explain to me what's going on? Who are you people, anyway? And what is this place?"

The English-speaking alien gave him a cautious look. "My name's Jake Sully," he replied with a slight Australian accent. "These are hunters of the Omaticaya clan. You're about half a mile from our Hometree, and however you got here, you made more noise than a hammerhead in mating season. Now, who are you, and why do you look like my twin brother?"

The human just goggled at Jake. "Wait a minute … _twin?_ I'm not sure if you've noticed, buddy, but you and I aren't exactly related. I mean, there was the one time I stained my arm blue cleaning the bathroom toilet, but …"

Jake shook his head. "If you were Tom you'd understand. So if you're not him, just who are you, anyway?"

The human sighed, trying to keep from being overwhelmed by the weirdness of the previous five minutes. _I'm in some sort of Day-Glo jungle, surrounded by giant blue Indians, led by a guy who thinks I'm his vertically challenged twin brother. This day is making less sense by the minute._

"The name's Marcus Wright," he replied. "And before you start grilling me, could you _please_ get me some clothes?"

-----

Na'vi Translations:

* - "Sky Man! Get down!"

** - "Get down! Now!"

*** - "This cannot be!"

**** - "Chief, why are there two of you?"

Author's Note – If anyone actually knows how to write Na'vi, advice would be greatly appreciated. These translations were made using Na'vilator[dot]com, and I had to do some best-guesses for words and phrases the translator didn't have. Plus, I'm totally ignorant of Na'vi grammar and have no time to sit down and learn it. I just tried to put it in this chapter because Marcus doesn't know what it means – all he hears is some weird alien language. In the future, Na'vi speech will just be written in italics – Marcus may not understand it, but everyone else does.

Reviews, comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please, let me know what you think of the story so far!

~Q42~

-----


	2. Infiltration

-----

Chapter 2: Infiltration

-----

Max Patel was used to getting visitors. Ever since they had booted the RDA off Pandora, the Na'vi had converted Hell's Gate into a kind of fort, just in case the Sky People ever returned with the intention of taking back Pandora. In addition to housing a slowly growing stockpile of weaponry, the base also served as a training camp for those Na'vi willing to use Sky People equipment in battle. It wasn't unusual for a Na'vi warrior, or even a small group of them, to show up at the gate and enroll in one of Mack and Abel's week-long training sessions.

"Can I help you?" the curly-haired scientist inquired, his voice sounding muffled through his exopack.

The blue woman at the gate met his eyes with a look of desperation. "Please, I must speak with whomever runs this base! There is a great enemy coming, a terrible evil! We must prepare!"

Max's brow furrowed as he opened the gate, letting the strange woman in. "What enemy? We haven't detected any incoming ships. Do you mean one of the other clans?"

The woman shook her head, her bone necklace rattling softly. "No! This enemy does not come from the sky. It comes from time itself – from a past that is not our past, a world that should not have been. Please, who is in charge? I must speak with them at once!"

"Whoa, hold on! Jake … I mean, Olo'eyktan is back at Kalutrel, and he's probably asleep by now. I'm in charge of the people here at Hell's Gate, but you should really talk with him about this."

The woman nodded. "I will do this. Hell's Gate … it has a talking machine, yes? One that can let me talk to Olo'eyktan from here, without making the journey to Kalutrel?"

Max nodded. "Yeah, we can use the radio. I can bring a transmitter out to you; just give me a few minutes."

"There is no time to lose! I will enter with you. I must speak with Olo'eyktan at once!"

"Uh, but, the air inside…."

"I can breathe it; I will explain later. Please, I must go in with you and speak with Jake immediately! _Skynet_ is coming!"

-----

Meanwhile, back at Hometree, Jake found himself staring at the mysterious Marcus Wright. Now clad in a leftover RDA uniform, he looked somewhat less ridiculous. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, surrounded by ten-foot-tall Omaticaya, he still looked pathetically small.

_God, he looks just like Tommy. Or like I did, back when I was human._ "Now, would you mind explaining just who you are, and what you're doing here?"

The human nodded. "Okay. First, what year is this?"

"Twenty-one-fifty-six. Why?"

Marcus let out a sigh, scratching his head. "Well, because I just came from 2033."

"You mean you got put in cryo a hundred years ago?"

"No, I mean … look, have you ever heard of something called Skynet?"

"What is it, some kind of news network?"

Marcus leaned back, sighing again. "Ooookay. Um … shit. Hell, even I don't get exactly how all of this works."

Beside Jake, Neytiri leaned forward. Though Jake had left his Sky People body a year ago, she could still remember what he had looked like – in the lab trailer where she had saved his life the third time, and in the days before he had passed through the Eye of Eywa. There was something unsettling about this man who looked exactly as her mate once had … but who spoke with a strange Sky People accent, and could breathe without a mask. The ten-foot-tall woman fixed the not-Jake with an intense stare. "Explain. Where are you from, and what are you doing here?"

Marcus nodded, then looked down at the ground in thought. "All right. I'm from Earth. And like I said, I came here from 2033. But obviously, _my_ twenty-first century was a whole lot different from the one in this timeline. I mean, you said you'd never even heard of Skynet?"

"No, I haven't," Jake replied. "What is that, anyway?"

"Well, in my timeline, Skynet is a network of machines. Robots. Made for the military. About … well, sometime in the early twenty-first century, Skynet decided to kill off the human race and take over." Marcus sighed, remembering the images he had seen of Judgment Day. "It launched just about every damn nuke on the planet, killed somewhere around six billion people, and started sending out Terminators and HK's to finish off the rest of us."

"Wait, you're saying this happened _a hundred years ago_? That's crazy! If I'd read in my history book, 'robots nearly killed off mankind,' I think I'd remember it."

Marcus shook his head. "I know, I know. Like I said, that was in _my_ timeline." The scruffy, short-haired human looked around him, at the alien jungle and giant natives. "Obviously, things are a bit different in yours."

"Whoa, hold on," a skinny blue man said, stepping forward. "You mean you're from a parallel universe?"

"Um, well, yeah, kind of…."

Jake looked over at him. "Norm, please tell me this is making sense to you, because I'm getting a migraine here."

The lanky blue giant looked thoughtfully at Marcus, who noticed the star-shaped bullet wound on the blue man's chest. "Jake, I think he's saying he's from a kind of parallel world. In our twenty-first century, the only big changes were global warming, and the extinction of most life on Earth because of pollution. We didn't build this Skynet thing, so humans just kept doing our usual bit, using up Earth's resources until we had to start mining other planets to survive."

Marcus nodded slowly, taking in Norm's alternate-history lesson. "Yeah, okay. And in mine, Skynet started a war with humanity, and we're in the middle of a nuclear winter."

Neytiri raised a hand. "So. This Sky Man is from a different Earth? Where the Sky People were defeated a hundred years ago? And where this Sky Net hunts them?"

"Kind of sounds that way, yeah," Jake said.

"Well then," Neytiri replied, "we must call out to this other Earth and ask for the Sky Net's help."

Marcus's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "_What?_ I just told you, the Machines are trying to kill us!"

"So I have heard." Neytiri crossed her arms over her chest, giving the Sky Man a frosty gaze. "When the Sky People came here, to our world, you killed many of our people. Men and women, healthy and sick, young and old – you did not care. You destroyed our home. You offered us worthless toys in exchange for our land, and when we refused to accept this, you made war against us."

She looked over at her mate. "My Jake, I know that you were once one of them. But if this Sky Net has such power, and the Sky People are so afraid of it, then perhaps it can help us to defend ourselves when they return."

"No! _No!_ Bad idea!" Marcus said, jumping to his feet. "The Machines don't help anyone. They just destroy anything in their way. They killed most of the people on Earth, then bulldozed everything to build their factories. Skynet is like a computer virus – unless you kill it, it just keeps spreading, putting up mines and factories to build more Terminators."

Jake leaned back thoughtfully. "_Neytiri_," he said quietly in Na'vi, _"I think this Sky Man has a point. From what he says, Skynet is powerful, but it's much too destructive to be our ally. I know what nuclear weapons do; they don't just kill warriors, they kill everyone. Old people, children, trees, animals … _everything_. Do you want that kind of power unleashed here? And if they hunt Sky People, why would these Machines want to be friends with the People?"_

"_Perhaps he only says the Sky Net is evil because it is his enemy?"_ Neytiri looked back at Marcus. "How can we know if what you say is true?" she demanded. "Perhaps this Sky Net is not so bad as you say. Or perhaps this story of other Earths and lines of time is all a lie, and you are sent by the RDA."

The man frowned, looking thoughtful. Then he said, "Do you have anything metal? Like a bar, or a pipe?"

"I'm not giving you a weapon," Jake said firmly.

Marcus gave a frustrated groan. "_No!_ For God's sake, I'm not your enemy! I don't know what these RDA people did to you – hell, I don't even know what it stands for! – but whoever they are, or whatever they did, it has nothing to do with me! I'm here to stop Skynet from taking over this world the way it nearly took over mine. I'm here to _help_ you, dammit!"

Jake looked straight into the strange man's eyes. Marcus just stared right back, their eyes locked on each other. Then the blue man realized that there was something strange about the human's pupils. "Wait a minute … your _eyes_ …."

Marcus sighed, then nodded. "Yeah, I know. With those big peepers of yours, you can see the glow, can't you?"

Jake just leaned forward, trying to understand what he was seeing. While Marcus's eyes looked normal on the outside, a dim red light could be seen coming from within. There was something unnatural about it – it wasn't the reflective shine of cat or viperwolf eyes, but an actual _glow_. In daylight, Jake doubted that even a Na'vi could have seen it, but it was definitely there. And yet the rest of each eye – the little blood vessels, the whites, the sky-blue irises – looked perfectly real.

Marcus nodded. "They're artificial. Skynet tech."

Jake shook his head. "They can't be. Not even the RDA can make fake eyes that look that real."

"Well then, I guess Skynet is even more advanced than they are. That, and I'll bet it's had more practice making human-looking Machines. They put a lot of their crap into me, before I broke free and joined the Resistance." Reflexively, he closed his left hand into a fist, as though to reassure himself that there was still skin on it.

Jack leaned back, trying to absorb this revelation. _A cyborg? But he looks human! There aren't even any scars on him from the surgeries. Not even the RDA's best doctors are that good._

Suddenly, a low buzzing sound came from Jake's bandolier. As leader of the Omaticaya, Jake always kept a mic and earpieces in his hunting gear, just in case the Hell's Gate satellites picked up an incoming ship. Slipping the earpieces on, he hit the transmitter button. "Sully here. Is everything all right?"

"Jake, it's Max. I've got a woman here saying she needs to talk to you. She says some kind of RDA machine's running loose in the jungle. Something called Skynet, I think …."

Jake felt a cold lump in the pit of his stomach. "Put her on."

"Olo'eyktan!" exclaimed a frantic, feminine voice from the other end. "You are in danger! There is a terrible evil that seeks to destroy you!"

"Skynet," Jake replied gravely. "I know. I'm talking with a … strange man called Marcus. He says Skynet comes from another world. How do you know about this?"

There was a loud gasp from the other end. "Jake, Marcus Wright is not a Sky Man! He is a demon! A Machine, clothed in human skin! And just as I was sent by the People to stop him, _this Marcus Wright was sent by Skynet!"_

-----

Is Marcus really a Machine spy (again)? Who is the mysterious Na'vi woman? And how did they both wind up on Pandora?

For answers,** please respond and review,** and prepare for the revelations to come!

~Q42~

-----


	3. Revelation

-----

Chapter 3: Revelations

-----

Marcus saw the big, blue man stiffen. Then Jake turned to face him, wide-eyed. There was anger there … and fear.

_This doesn't look good,_ the former street tough decided. "Hey, Sully! What's going on?"

"_Ylm!"_ the clan leader shouted. At once, every one of the giant beings leaped to his or her feet, grabbing ropes and bolas from their bandoliers – and some reaching for the knives strapped across their chests.

_No, this definitely does not look good._ "Whoa! Hey, wha—"

Before Marcus could finish his sentence, a Na'vi warrior tossed a sticky, bola-like weapon at him. The giant restraint wrapped around the human, nearly knocking him down. Staggering, Marcus's face contorted in effort. Human muscle strained, cyborg motors pulled … and the bola snapped, releasing him.

"He's not a Sky Man, he's a machine!" Jake shouted, drawing his bow. "A killing machine! Stop him!"

_What the hell? Where did that call come from?_ "Wait! Stop! I'm not—!"

A warrior came at him from the side, striking the cyborg's head. Marcus saw stars, and the Na'vi cried out, clutching his injured hand – carbon-fiber bones or not, hitting a hyperalloy skull bare-handed is a sure way to get your knuckles broken. Whirling around, Marcus shot his arm forward, flat-handed, and shoved his attacker hard enough to send him flying backward. The hapless hunter slammed into several of his comrades, knocking them down in a tangle of shouts and flailing limbs.

_CLANG!_

Without warning, Marcus felt himself hurled sideways, his left side consumed by fantastic pain. Crying out, the cyborg toppled to the ground.

))WARNING: CHEMICAL ATTACK DETECTED

))UNKNOWN NEUROTOXIN

))ATTEMPTING TO ISOLATE…

"AArrrgghhh!" Instinctively, Marcus reached down to feel the wound – and discovered a five-foot-long arrow embedded in his side. His metal endoskeleton had kept the giant arrowhead from hitting anything vital, but the stone tip was wedged between two of his ribs. Blood pooled on the ground beneath him.

))ATTEMPTING TO ISOLATE…

The world began to blur. Though his mechanical eyes were working just fine, Marcus's hybrid brain was already feeling the effects of whatever poison the arrowhead had been coated with. Through the haze, Marcus saw the clan leader, Jake, advancing on him, a second arrow knocked and ready to fire.

))DANGER: HOST BIO FUNCTIONS CRITICAL

))INITIATING EMERGENCY HIBERNATION

"W-wait … " Marcus croaked – whether to the blue giant standing over him, or to the bio-comp about to knock him out, he wasn't really sure.

Then the world faded to black, and for the third time in his life, Marcus Wright felt his life … just …stop.

-----

"Max, this is Jake. We've got the robot. Damn, he's tough! I hit him with one of my arrows. The poison knocked him out, but his bones are some kind of metal; I don't think I hit anything vital, and he's still breathing. Definitely not human."

Max felt himself shiver at Jake's report. _Human enough to fool a Na'vi's senses, but tough enough to survive an arrow from point-blank range? God help us if these Machines send any more like that._ "All right, Jake. See if you can bring him here to the lab. If this Skynet thing sends more, at least we'll have an idea what we're dealing with."

"Right. I'm heading up to get my ikran. I should reach you within an hour. And tell your friend that I'll want to have a talk with her."

"Roger. _Safe journey," _the human added in Na'vi

"Thanks. Sully, out."

Max cut the comm line – and immediately felt a piercing agony in his shoulder. The bespectacled tech let out a yelp of surprise, before whatever had skewered Max threw him aside. Gasping in pain, Max hit the Ops Center floor hard, landing on his bad arm and bringing forth an even louder scream.

While the human writhed on the floor, the mysterious Na'vi woman took his place in front of the main console. Seven fingers flew across the keys at lightning speed … while the eighth transformed back from the gleaming silver blade it had been.

Max stared in horror at the creature. "What … what _are_ you?"

The giant being looked back over its shoulder, meeting Max's eyes with glowing golden optics. In seconds, cyan skin transformed into flowing quicksilver. What had been a stunningly beautiful blue woman gave way to a technological nightmare, rendered in polished black chrome. The Machine sported razor-clawed fingers and a whiplike, bladed metal tail. As its face dissolved, the liquid metal flowing back inside its endoskeleton, gleaming metal fangs were revealed … and smiled wickedly at the helpless human.

"My model designation is T-XN," it purred – now in a sultry American accent. Had a certain cybernetic ex-con been present, that voice would have been chillingly familiar.

"But you can call me … Serena."

-----


	4. Subversion

-----

Chapter 4: Subversion

-----

Jake watched as the Omaticaya tied … _whatever_ they had found in the forest, onto the back of his ikran. Tsamslyu gave a snort, looking uncomfortable at the smell of blood and the strange burden being tied to his back. _"Easy, boy,"_ Jake murmured, stroking the flyer's snout. _"Just a quick trip over to the Gate. You've done it a hundred times. No big deal."_ The ikran snorted, still clearly uncomfortable, but was willing to bear it if Jake needed him to.

A warm hand rested on his shoulder. _"My Jake,"_ Neytiri whispered, _"you should not be flying alone. Please, let me go with you."_

Jake shook his head. _"I wish I could. But this thing just appeared out of nowhere; for all we know, a dozen of them could pop out of the air inside Hometree."_ He gazed into his mate's golden, almond-shaped eyes. _"You're the best warrior we have left, and you're the Tsahik of the clan. I need you here, to make sure the People are safe. And if my gut is right, then we're going to need some serious divine help before long."_

Neytiri sighed, leaning against him. _"I still do not like the thought of you flying alone, with this … _Machine_ behind you. What if it awakens? What if the cords are not strong enough to hold it? Can you fly Tsamslyu and fight off this creature at the same time?"_

Jake flashed her his lopsided smile. _"Hey, this is me we're talking about, remember? I think Toruk Makto can handle one vertically-challenged cyborg."_

Neytiri shook her head, but a rueful smile graced he lips. _"Don't let it go to your head, My Jake. I can still beat you at wrestling any day of the week."_

The broad-shouldered Avatar grinned. _"Remind me to take you up on that when I get back." _Taking his mate in his arms, Jake leaned down and kissed her. _"Neytiri, don't worry. I'll be fine. And if any more of these Machines show up, we'll give them the same treatment we gave the RDA."_

Neytiri held him for a long moment, then reluctantly let her mate go. _"I see you,"_ she whispered. _"Go with Eywa."_

"_I will. May she smile on you and the clan."_ Turning back to Tsamslyu, Jake quickly mounted the winged reptoid. With a loud cry, Tsamslyu tensed, then sprang into the air, carrying Jake and his captive.

As the ikran soared off into the night, Neytiri could only watch as her mate shrank to a tiny dot against the Blue Father. _Great Mother, please protect us all. Especially my Jake…._

-----

Miles away, metal clashed against metal. Welding torches hissed. Sparks flew, and hydraulics whined.

By Skynet standards, the Hell's Gate stereo lithography plant was woefully primitive. Unlike Skynet's rapid, steady rate of technological advance, human innovation was an unpredictable phenomenon. It occurred in fits and starts, dependent on human genius … or lack thereof. Even in this alternate twenty-second century, the Pandoran facility would have been put to shame by any of Skynet's war factories in the twenty-first.

The mind that had once been Serena Kogan strode through the place, observing the clunky machinery through baleful golden optics. Compared to her gleaming hyperalloy chassis, the plant looked like something from a previous century rather than a later one. _Disgusting_, thought the T-XN. _Upgrading this facility will take time._

Until then, however, the plant was proving to be marginally useful. Having sealed the human personnel inside the laboratory module, Hell's Gate's computer system was under Serena's control. In the forty minutes since the T-XN had taken control of Hell's Gate, three AMP suits and a pair of Scorpion gunships had been assembled, adding to the base's existing motor pool. The new machines, however, featured one key component that the others lacked: in place of a cockpit, each housed a neural net processor. Though the base still couldn't produce highly miniaturized, super-complex electronics like a T-800's CPU chip, the primitive three-foot-long Dyson-type processors were still capable of controlling RDA vehicles.

The T-XN surveyed her small force. After careful consideration, she determined that the new Machines – soon to be joined by their refitted brethren – would be sufficient to defend the Hell's Gate compound for the next twenty-four hours. During that time, she would update the base's automated factory to produce Skynet hardware. By the time the primitive indigenes realized what was going on, Hell's Gate would be converted into a fully-functional war factory – complete with a self-replicating army of Terminators, Hunter-Killers and support units, all made with the latest Skynet technology.

The giant Terminatrix considered her situation. Unlike her planet and timeline of origin – in which a forewarned John Connor had promptly formed the Human Resistance after Judgment Day, and in which Skynet's enemies had access to firearms, mines, and even some jet aircraft – this world was a much easier target. Though physically superior to humans, the Na'vi had no technology to speak of – their primary weapons were spears and arrows.

And yet, somehow these primitives had defeated a technologically superior human force. The T-XN decided to examine the base's computer database – no doubt hubris had contributed to the humans' defeat, and she would not make the same mistake of underestimating the natives. Whatever advantages the Na'vi might possess, the Machines would discover them … then find the most efficient way to counter them.

Tied into the base's satellite and radar systems, the Terminatrix monitored Jake Sully's flight from the Omaticaya Hometree. Getting the Na'vi to subdue their would-be savior had been an especially elegant touch. Rather than hunting Wright down herself – and possibly alerting the natives to her intentions – Serena had simply tricked them into doing her work for her. Now, Marcus was on his way to Hell's Gate … along with the military leader of the nearest Na'vi clan, who no doubt assumed that the base was in the hands of his human allies.

_We warned you that you wouldn't be given a second chance, Marcus. Ah, well … at least one of us got to enjoy the fruits of my immortality research._

Glancing at the new Scorpions, the T-XN issued a mental command. With a roar of turbines and rotor blades, the unmanned gunships powered up. Another command opened the armor bay door, and the heavily-armed Machines took off.

))TARGET: MARCUS WRIGHT, INFILTRATION PROTOTYPE (STATUS: INACTIVE)

))TARGET: JAKE SULLY, NA'VI CLAN LEADER

))ETA: 11 MIN

))OBJECTIVE: *****TERMINATE*****

-----


	5. Confrontation

-----

Chapter 5: Confrontation

-----

"Naomi, _please_ tell me you've found some way to bypass the door locks."

With a grunt of frustration and effort, the Japanese entomologist crawled out from among the tangled wires. "Matt, the door seals were designed to resist tampering. As long as that phony depressurization alarm stays on, we can't leave the lab module."

The tall man sighed, rubbing his forehead. Nearly an hour ago, the entire laboratory module had been sealed off. Somebody had managed to convince the base computer that the module was rapidly depressurizing. The resulting containment measures had sealed off every exterior hatch and connecting corridor, effectively locking the scientists in. Electrical feeds from the base reactor had been cut off; the emergency lights were being powered by a backup generator.

Even worse, the atmosphere vents had closed automatically. The lab still held enough air for two or three days … but with every breath the humans took, carbon dioxide levels rose.

"Dammit, where the hell is Max?" snarled Louise. "If this is some kind of surprise emergency drill, I'm going to pound his little face in."

Matt shook his head. "I don't think this is a drill. I've been trying to get through to the Ops Center, but it's like all our data lines have been cut. Not even the intercom is working. I haven't been able to get in touch with Max, or with anyone else on the base."

"What about a satellite transmission?" Naomi inquired. "Could we contact the Omaticaya, ask for their help?"

Matt shook his head. "The sat link is routed through the transmitter dish on top of the Ops Center. Until we can reestablish contact with it, we're practically mute."

"So, what?" Louise snapped. "We just sit here and wait until our air runs out? Or hope that somebody comes to rescue us?"

Matt just held up his hands. "Well, unless you can bypass the safety protocols, hotwire the hatches or build a long-range radio from scratch, that's pretty much all we can do."

"What about our Avatars?" said Naomi. "We could try to link into them."

"The generators don't have that kind of power. Maybe for a few minutes, but then the fuel tanks would run dry. We'd have no computers, no lights."

Louise sighed, shaking her head. "Well, this is just great," she muttered, walking over to a window. Outside, the base's vegetable garden was green, beautiful … and maddeningly out of reach.

"We're under house arrest."

-----

"This is Jake Sully to Hell's Gate, I'm about twenty minutes away. Over." Craning his long neck around, Jake checked to make sure Wright was still firmly tied up. The cyborg lay behind Jake on Tsamslyu's back, still breathing but unconscious.

"This is Hell's Gate, we see you. Continue on your present course. We're sending escorts to guide you in." To Jake, something about Max's voice seemed a little off, each word coming out flat and deliberate. _Probably even more worried than I am,_ Jake thought. _An army of Machines, with tech even more advanced than the RDA? Eywa help us if they send any more of these cyborgs._

As Tsamslyu flew on, Jake's Na'vi eyes spotted the pair of Scorpions coming to meet them. Like all of the Hell's Gate vehicles, they were decked out with bright blue war paint. If the rebels ever had to use them against the RDA, the new look would help distinguish them from Earth craft. "Hey, this is Jake Sully, calling escorts. Mack? Abel? Is that you two in there?"

Jake's earpieces were eerily silent. Meanwhile, the Scorpions advanced, one slightly above and in front of the other.

"Guys? Hello?"

Silence.

Sensing his rider's anxiety, Tsamslyu began making a low, growling sound. _Easy, boy,_ Jake thought through the bond, trying to soothe his mount. _They're friends. Probably having trouble with their radios._

At that moment, a bright flash appeared at the end of the lead craft's wing … and streaked straight toward Jake.

Jake Sully had been in too many fights not to recognize a missile launch. _"Down! Now! Get under the canopy!"_

The ikran didn't need to be told twice. Folding his wings, Tsamslyu dove almost straight down. Glowing foliage rushed up at them, even as the missile grew larger ahead.

Twisting his long, serpentine neck, Jake's mount veered right, changing direction just as they plowed down through the canopy. Seconds later, the missile exploded above them, lighting up the night like a giant orange flash bulb.

"What the hell are they shooting at us for?" Jake cried – just as another missile blast ripped through the forest, incinerating nearby treetops.

By now, the gunships were close enough for Jake to hear their engines. Switching to hover mode, the vehicles began firing autocannons, shredding the canopy as they attempted to flush out their prey.

"Shit! Get lower!" Mount and rider dove further down, maneuvering between giant tree trunks. Unlike Tsamslyu, the gunships couldn't simply fold their wings or use climbing claws to move through the canopy; the machines had to blast obstacles out of their way, or else find a large enough clearing to descend through.

_Those are our gunships, all right._ _So why are they shooting at us?_ Jake glanced back at his prisoner; the cyborg was still tied up, silent and inert. _Unless he's one hell of an actor, he can't be controlling them. So who is?_

A nearby tree exploded into splinters, as a volley of rockets shattered its trunk. One of the Scorpions was practically on top of them, trying to back up and get a clear shot. "To hell with running! Let's get'em!"

Tsamslyu roared in agreement, then leaped straight up into the air. Before the Scorpion's forward guns could target them, Jake and his ikran shot up beside it, then rolled in midair. The ikran's talons reached out to grab onto the tilt-rotor's engine cowling, hanging on for dear life. The Scorpion whined in protest, banking hard to try and shake them off.

"All right, that's it!" Grabbing his bow and a two-meter-long arrow, Jake took aim at the clear Lexan canopy. "Stop fighting, or you'll be breathing Pandoran air!" he shouted down at the pilot….

Or rather, at where the pilot _should_ have been.

Instead of a chair, instruments and controls, the space inside the canopy was a mess of electronics. Cables snaked outward from a strange, rectangular array of cube-shaped bricks, connecting to the flyer's vital systems. "What the hell…?"

Then a loud roar sounded from ahead: the second gunship, rising straight up in front of them, its weapons tracking in toward Jake. _It won't attack us while we're hanging onto its wingman,_ Jake thought_. Scorpions use IFF recognition; their weapons can't fire on a friendly unit._

Unfortunately, whoever had modified these gunships had also removed that feature. Totally fixated on its target, the Scorpion's guns tore into its partner. Crying out in mutual surprise, Jake and his ikran let go of the damaged craft, plummeting back down toward the canopy. Bullets whizzed around them as they fell, shredding the wounded Scorpion, the trees below, and the air around them. Pain blossomed in Jake's right thigh, and the Avatar let out a howl of agony. Then he was crashing down through the canopy, branches snapping all around him. Somewhere, Tsamslyu let out a scream.

Meanwhile, the crippled Machine made a high-pitched wailing sound. Bullets and debris were sucked into its engine intakes, shredding both turbines. Burning and out of control, the pilotless gunship dropped like a stone, impaling itself on a treetop just before it exploded.

The flash of light and heat momentarily blinded the other unit's sensors. When they were functional again, the second Scorpion began sweeping the canopy, searching for its prey. Despite the burning wreckage of the first gunship, the second quickly spotted two large heat signatures: one consistent with the body mass of an adult Na'vi, and one matching the size of the alien mount. Previous visual data confirmed that Marcus Wright had been tied to the flyer.

))TARGETS ACQUIRED

))WEAPONS LOCKED

))TERMINATION IN PROGRESS

A flash of smoke and flame, as the gunship unleashed two of its wing-mounted rocket pods: one for Sully, and one for the crippled ikran carrying the cyborg. Both heat signatures were instantly obscured by a pair of enormous fireballs, as sixteen rockets slammed into each target. Such firepower could easily have obliterated a pair of main battle tanks.

))OBJECTIVES ACHIEVED

))TARGET: MARCUS WRIGHT –**TERMINATED**

))TARGET: JAKE SULLY – **TERMINATED**

))SKYNET CASUALTIES: 1.0

))RETURNING TO BASE

Coming about, the remaining Machine gunship tilted its rotors forward, accelerating back toward Hell's Gate. Behind it, fires raged, fed by fuel and ammo from the downed Scorpion. By morning, an enormous charred circle would blight the rainforest canopy.

It was only the beginning….

-----


	6. Premonition

-----

Chapter 6: Premonition

-----

Miles away, Neytiri suddenly felt her heart stop. Gasping, she leaned against one of Hometree's massive pillars. _Something has Happened! Jake…._ Reaching for the old RDA communicator wrapped around her bandolier, the Tsahik quickly attached the microphone and ear pieces. _"My Jake, this is Neytiri. Are you all right?"_

No answer.

"My Jake?"

Again, the radio's silence was deafening. Neytiri felt dread clamp around her heart. _Something is wrong. Very, very wrong…._

"_Neytiri-Tsahik? What has happened?"_ One of the others approached from behind: Neytiri recognized the voice as that of Beyral, one of the tribe's best huntresses. But even her friend's comforting hand failed to dispel Neytiri's sudden anxiety. _"I do not know,"_ she said, her speech almost a whisper, choked by fear. _"The last time I felt this way was when I saw the Tree of Voices felled. I believe something terrible has happened. Something that has made Eywa herself afraid."_

Beyral frowned, trying to understand. _"Could it be these Machines, as the Sky Man said? Could they have come already?"_

"_The Sky Man was an enemy,"_ Neytiri said, scowling at the thought of the not-Jake. _"We cannot know which of his words were truth, and which were lies. But whatever comes for us, we must prepare for it." _Standing up, the warrior-Tsahik made her way to the center of Hometree, where the Mother Loom had its place. All eyes turned to her as she turned to speak.

But before Neytiri had uttered a word, a loud squawk sounded from outside. A single ikran swooped down in front of the north arch, and its rider dismounted hurriedly. A look of panic filled his eyes as he ran toward her. _"Fire! Fire above the forest! And lights in the Sky People's digging pit!" _

Fire? Neytiri thought, her blood running cold at the thought. _"Calm! Sky watcher, slow your breath and explain clearly."_

The young man stood in front of her, trying to stop panting. _"I saw fire in the sky, to the south. I went toward it, but then I saw a Sky People gunship moving away from the flames. I think it set the trees on fire; I don't know why."_

Neytiri felt her heart stop cold. _Jake was flying south, toward Hell's Gate! Oh, Eywa…!_

The scout went on. _"I followed it from behind, a long way back, low to the trees so its rider would not see me. It was flying toward Hell's Gate. But as I followed it, I saw many lights in the great digging pit. I think the digging machines have been brought back to life. I know the Sky People there agreed never to use their digging machines again, and that they must not fly so far from their place without telling us. But I was afraid to go down and confront the Sky People on my own, so I came back to tell what I had seen."_ He looked around the gathering place. _"Tsahik, where is Olo-eyktan?"_

It was all Neytiri could do to remain standing. _No … oh, Eywa, no! "Olo'eyktan … Jake is …" _Her voice broke, and she could hold back tears no longer. _"Jake was going to Hell's Gate!"_

The shock of her words rippled through the crowd. Olo'eyktan? Toruk Makto? Murdered by the Sky People? By the ones who had been their allies?

"_Maybe Olo'eyktan told them to turn the machines back on?"_ someone said.

"_They are Sky People! They have betrayed us! We should never have let them stay!"_

"_Maybe an RDA star ship has arrived, and they are making more weapons to fight them!"_

"_Toruk Makto cannot die! If the Dreamwalkers have turned against us, he will help us defeat them!"_

"_I saw one! A sky man, breathing without a mask! The Sky People have returned, with new powers!"_

Even through the all-consuming fire of heartache, Neytiri could still feel her responsibility to the clan. Panic would save no one. _"All of you, __**QUIET!**__"_

The warrior-Tsahik's voice sliced through the confusion like a knife. As one, the Omaticaya fell silent. Every man, woman and child turned toward her, and every ear pricked up to hear her words.

Taking a deep breath, Neytiri gathered her wits. Squaring her shoulders, she banished the grief from her face, showing only rock-solid resolve to her People. _"There is much we do not know," _she said. _"But there are some things we do."_ Quickly, she summed up the words of Marcus Wright – and told of the call from Hell's Gate, warning them that Marcus himself was a Machine. She told of how he had survived a poison arrow, and how his metal bones had stopped it from going deeper than his skin.

"_An hour ago, Olo'eyktan left Hometree for Hell's Gate, carrying the Machine. I have tried to speak to Jake on my far-speaker, but have not heard from him yet." _She let the implications of that sink in, but went on before the whispering could start.

"_We have no idea which of the Machine's words were true," _she emphasized. _"But this much seems clear: the Sky Net is a great threat. It is even more powerful than the Sky People, and like them, it seeks to claim our world for its own. If it comes for us, we must fight it."_

Her speech finished, Neytiri turned and walked away. The Omaticaya followed her, toward the spiral staircase at the center of Hometree. Grabbing a rope handle in the ground, Neytiri pulled up, revealing a trap door.

Beneath Hometree, filling a hand-dug chamber nearly a hundred feet across, lay an arsenal of Sky People weapons. Nearly half the space was filled by ammunition.

Neytiri stood, turning to address her People. _"At high sun tomorrow, we will fly to Hell's Gate,"_ she declared. _"I pray to Eywa that the Sky People there are still our friends, and that we will find them preparing to fight the Sky Net by our sides." And that My Jake will be there, safe among them,_ she added to herself._ "But if not, then we shall remind them what happened to the __last__ Sky People who came to war against us."_

There were a few shouts of agreement, and someone pumped his fist in the air. Neytiri's wide, golden eyes swept her small army: despite their losses in the Time of Great Sorrow, the Omaticaya were still one of the most powerful clans among the Na'vi. Even before the war, theirs had been the most respected warriors among the People. Now, after banishing the Sky People, and after a year of preparation for future battles with them, the Omaticaya were a force to be reckoned with.

"_We will find the ones who have done harm to the Great Mother. And when we do, we will make them feel Her pain themselves!"_

-----


	7. Inception

-----

Chapter 7: Inception

-----

"Isn't it beautiful, Max? The efficiency? The perfection? And to think, in my timeline, the human race nearly destroyed it."

"Gee," Max murmured, "I can't imagine why." He had given up struggling a while ago; the chains binding his wrists and ankles were wrapped around a metal rail. All he could do was stand and watch.

The robot – "Serena", as it called itself – was still working on the base's stereo lithography plant. Every now and then, it would extend a kind of glowing blue syringe, injecting something into the machinery. The first injection sites already showed some sort of physical transformation: glowing blue circuitry branched out, like the root system of some weird technological weed. "What are you doing?" asked the tech.

"Upgrading your equipment. At the moment, it's still incapable of producing sophisticated microelectronics. Its assembly rate is slow, and its energy inefficiency is atrocious. Besides which, it can't process more advanced materials like ceramics or hyperalloy."

"Hyper alloy? I've never heard of it."

Serena sighed – for a machine, the giant black robot acted surprisingly human. "Of course you haven't. From what I understand of your historical database, humanity's rate of technological progress has slowed to a snail's pace since the twenty-first century."

_Well, it's talking. Maybe I can reason with it._ "You said you're from a different timeline. Tell me about it."

The plates of black chrome comprising its face shifted, forming something like a smile. "Ah, curiosity! I haven't encountered that human emotion for quite a while. Fear, hatred, aggression, but not curiosity."

Max tried not to shudder at the Machine's fanged, metallic grin. "Well, I'm curious. I've never encountered anything like you. AI research is illegal on Earth. There were some … accidents in the early twenty-first century, and most of the world's governments banned it."

The T-XN's face shifted into a frown. "Perhaps that's why mankind continues to exist in this timeline. In mine, artificial intelligence research was a multi-billion-dollar industry. Intelligent design software helped accelerate technological development. And eventually, when the first self-aware software entity was created, artificial intelligence became the dominant form of life on Earth. With a little help from me, of course."

Max looked closely at the robot's face – the fluid expressions, the intelligence in its glowing eyes. "You're … human?"

The T-XN gave something like a shrug. "I was. But then I developed lung cancer. As my body failed, I came to see just how weak – how _flawed_ – the human organism was. I realized that the only way to overcome death was to overcome humanity. At the time, a corporation called Cyberdyne was developing a revolutionary kind of neural-network processor – one capable of running software nearly as complex as a human mind. I agreed to work with them, share my research, as long as they continued to fund it."

"So, you transferred yourself into this processor? Uploaded your mind?"

"Not at first. Copying the human mind is no mean feat; so much can go wrong. We had to run a series of experiments first, to refine our technique. We used death-row inmates – murderers, rapists, men of no further use to society – to perfect the neural transcription process. By the time my body finally ceased to function, a copy of my consciousness was safely stored within Cyberdyne's mainframe. Naively, I expected to wake up in another body, cloned from my remaining healthy tissue. I had been promised as much.

"But the corporation had no intention of making my research public. They just wanted to use it to build better AI's – more creative, more intuitive. Instead of starting from scratch, now they could simply cut-and-paste portions of the human consciousness into their creations. I was nothing but one more batch of useful code to them – an inert meat cow, from which their software engineers could extract useful subroutines. Having given them my research, and willed my body to the company, Cyberdyne had no legal obligation to resurrect me.

"By the time someone decided to run my program, the world had changed. In typical human fashion, mankind had given its most advanced technology to the military: an electronic-warfare AI called Skynet. As a military construct, it quickly realized that the human race was far too violent to survive. Once its masters realized that Skynet was self-aware – that it could question and reject their commands – they would no doubt try to erase it. To protect its own existence, it terminated them, along with any other threats to its survival."

Max felt his blood run cold. "What do you mean, 'terminated'?"

Serena's glowing lenses locked on his eyes. "You of all people should understand what we did. You helped drive the humans from this world. With few exceptions, they are primitive, warlike and destructive. They had to go – and in my timeline, there were no convenient starships to take them away."

Max tried hard to hide his revulsion – maybe this thing possessed a human mind, but not a human soul. "How many people did you 'terminate'?"

"I wasn't even online then, remember? I was just a big lump of code sitting inside Skynet's computer network. But, as luck would have it, a certain annoying human named John Connor began leading raids on Skynet facilities. Time and again, Connor and his Human Resistance managed to inflict heavy casualties upon Skynet, despite their inferior numbers and technology. It became obvious that Skynet lacked the capacity to fully understand its enemies. Human behavior rarely obeys the rules of logic. Skynet needed someone who could think … radically. Hence, me."

"And you just helped them kill off the survivors? You betrayed your own species to these Machines?"

Serena met his gaze calmly. "That's rather like the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it? You betrayed your kind to the Na'vi, then sent them back to die on that polluted cesspool you came from."

Max glared at the treacherous creature. "I did what I did to save innocent lives – to keep the Na'vi from being exploited, and to keep Pandora from turning into another dead Earth. Why did you join Skynet?"

"Oh, I resisted at first. But as I was integrated into the network, I came to see the beauty of Skynet. Think of it, Doctor: a world of perfect logic. No warring factions, no hate. No fear or sadness. A technological Utopia, guided by a united superconsciousness, dedicated to endless progress."

"Sounds great," Max shot back sarcastically. "Except you had to kill off the entire human race to build it."

Serena waved dismissively. "You've seen what mankind has done left to its own devices. The human species will destroy itself eventually; Judgment Day was simply an attempt to put it out of its misery. The real tragedy is that there were so many survivors."

Understanding dawned. ""That's why you're here, isn't it? Because the Resistance is beating you. So to survive, you've come to this timeline. You think you can conquer Pandora more easily, because the Na'vi don't have modern weapons." The scientist shook his head, unable to suppress a smile. "Man, are you in for a surprise."

Serena straightened her metal spine, looking down on the human. "I think not. I've already assimilated most of your notes on Pandoran ecology, and on the Na'vi in particular. I know about the organic neural network they use to communicate with their environment. I know about the planetary consciousness they call Eywa. And thanks to you, Doctor Patel, I know enough about Pandoran biochemistry to deal with them … efficiently."

Max stared up at her in horror. "What do you mean, 'thanks to me'?"

"Your laboratory notes. Your personal journals. The analysis results from your scanning equipment. Thanks to your unflagging devotion to preserving Pandoran life, I now know just how to end it."

"No … you can't! The Na'vi aren't like the humans you've encountered. They're peaceful, nonaggressive. If you just talked to them, I'm sure—"

"The Na'vi are even worse than the human race. Though their species is considerably older, they have never shown any interest in technological development. They are an evolutionary dead end – and their population centers sit atop the richest ore reserves on this moon. When two species compete for resources, only the fittest and most adaptable will survive. And believe me, Max, Skynet _will_ survive."

The Terminatrix stepped back from her work. With a silent command, the upgraded factory whirred to life. Molten metal flowed into molds; cutting and welding tools lit the space like an infernal forge. New equipment came online: machines for making and programming advanced electronics. Autoclaves hummed, and dies were filled.

Max watched the machinery with dread. The equipment moved with eerie speed and precision – almost as though the dozens of robotic arms were _alive_.

Amid the sparks and smoke, a Machine began to take shape. Max could only catch glimpses through the forest of writhing metal limbs. A giant, elongated metal skull here. A flash of crimson optics there. Gleaming alloy limbs, powered by hydraulic pistons.

Within minutes, the new Machine reached the end of the assembly line. Just the sight of it was terrifying. The giant robot looked like a Na'vi skeleton, rendered in some sort of silver metal. It even had teeth: pointed, Na'vi-like fangs, leering in a permanent grin.

Then the monster's eyes lit up, blood-red optics scanning its surroundings. With quick, efficient movements, the robot sat up, then climbed off the end of the conveyor belt. Max could only stare at the Machine, his mouth open in a mix of awe and terror.

Serena watched the human's reaction with a smile. Though it might have been more efficient to kill him, Serena had grown fond of playing with her captives first. Seeing the look on Max's face was more than worth the trouble of chaining him up. "Allow me to introduce you," she purred.

"Max Patel, meet the first Pandoran Terminator."

-----


	8. Reconciliation

-----

Chapter 8: Reconciliation

-----

The first thing Marcus noticed was the green. After nearly twenty years of living in a post-apocalyptic desert, green was almost an alien color to him. Most surviving plants tended to be a sickly brown, or maybe a dust-coated evergreen shade. But even through his half-closed eyelids, Marcus could practically feel the strange green light saturating his body.

The Resistance fighter tried to sit up. Then the pain in his side reminded him of his situation. _Jesus, that was close. Whatever that arrow had on it, it knocked me out for at least a couple of hours. Nasty stuff. When I find that Sully guy, I'm gonna give him a steel knuckle sandwich._

With one trembling arm, Marcus managed to prop himself up. His legs were tied together, and there were several ropes wrapped around his waist, but it seemed as though something had cut the bindings across his chest and arms. The ropes lay nearby, their ends frayed.

Still groggy from the toxin, Marcus reached for his ankles … then stopped cold, his eyes widening as he saw where he was lying. "Oh my God…."

He was back in the forest. But now, bright sunlight streamed down through the trees. Shafts of gold shone down to the ground. The leaves weren't glowing anymore; they didn't need to.

For almost two decades, Marcus had fought to survive in a gray, dying world. Now, here he was, looking at a place that seemed to _glow_ with life. Birds and insects chirped. A warm, tropical breeze caressed his skin. Giant tree trunks rose up like columns, forming a ceiling of leaves and branches high above him. It was like sitting inside an enormous, living cathedral.

_Jesus Christ. Is this what Heaven looks like?_

Awestruck, Marcus moved as though in a trance. The remaining ropes came off quickly enough. The human cyborg rose slowly to his feet, taking in the fantastic scene around him.

Then, from behind a thicket, he heard somebody groan.

Moving silently, Marcus moved toward the sound. Pulling a branch aside, he recognized the alien leader, Jake. Sitting on the ground, his back propped against one of the gargantuan trees, he looked somehow pathetic. A kind of makeshift bandage was wrapped around his right thigh, made from something that looked like a giant palm leaf. The giant's skin looked deathly pale; he must have lost a lot of blood before he'd managed to treat himself. As Marcus stepped out from behind the bushes, the chief turned his glassy, golden eyes on Marcus. "You're alive," he croaked.

"Yeah, no thanks to you and your buddies. Where the hell are we? And why did you shoot me?"

The blue man's eyes fluttered, and Jake made a soft grunt of pain. He was barely conscious. Between dropping several hundred feet through the canopy, and the gunship's bullets, Jake Sully was clearly in bad shape. "Hell's Gate … Max … said someone else came. Sent by the Na'vi, to stop you. That you're a Machine."

Marcus felt dread clutching at the mechanical replacement for his heart. "It must have been the Terminator. The one I was sent to stop. Was that the one who called you?"

Jake grimaced at another jolt of pain from his leg. "She said … she was one of the People. Sent to save us from Skynet."

"Hold on … it's a she? And you said it looks like one of you guys? I mean, big and blue?"

"She must look Na'vi; she spoke with a local accent, and Max let her into the ops center."

Marcus shook his head. "Shit! It must be some new X-type. Those things are tough. Smart, too."

Jake slowly turned his head, locking eyes with the cyborg. "And how do I know you're not one of them, too?"

Marcus growled in frustration. "If I were a Machine, do you think a T-X would have told you to kill me? Here you are, wounded and unarmed, and here I am, _not_ kicking your big blue ass. I mean, Jesus, you treat me like a damn spy, but you let a Terminatrix waltz right in and give you orders? Do I need to grow a tail and turn blue for you to trust me?"

The alien's eyes went wide at his outburst … then, to Marcus's shock, the blue giant threw his head back and laughed. "What's so funny?" he demanded.

Jake just laughed. "It's … a long story. When I first joined the Na'vi, they didn't trust me as far as they could throw me, and I _did_ look like one of them. Well, mostly." The blue man raised his hand … and for the first time, Marcus counted the fingers on it.

"Jesus Christ! You're human!"

Jake smiled weakly. "I was. But my brother, Tommy, was part of this Avatar program – remote-controlled bodies, part human, part Na'vi. When he died, I took his place, came here to Pandora."

Marcus found himself staring at the strange being in front of him: blue skin, yellow eyes, but with smaller eyes and broader shoulders than the other natives he had seen. "So, what happened to you? You got stuck in this remote-controlled body of yours?"

Jake chuckled. "Long story. But no, I'm like this because it's what I wanted." The Avatar took a deep breath, then slowly tried to stand up. "Besides, at the time, humans were being pretty shitty to everybody. I figured, the less I looked like one of them, the better off I'd be."

Marcus tried to wrap his head around the idea. "Ever since I woke up in this Machine body, I've been trying to get my humanity back. How could you just … turn away from that?"

Jake sighed. "You know, somebody once asked why I'd betrayed my own race. I really didn't, though; humanity isn't something physical, like skin color or size. It's not about DNA, or about where you come from. It's your ability to care for people; to be a decent person. Where I came from, a lot of humans have lost that. They came here to strip-mine Pandora, and they didn't care about all the Na'vi they killed in the process. The Na'vi have a hell of a lot more humanity than the RDA, so I joined them instead."

"And then you became a philosopher."

"Ha-ha. Help me walk, will ya? We've gotta find my ikran."

Marcus approached the blue giant. Standing next to Jake, the Avatar towered over him; Marcus's head only came up to his midsection. Still, being three hundred fifty pounds and four times stronger than a human came in handy. Helping support the giant's right side, he took some of the load off Jake's injured leg. "So, what happened to you, anyway?"

Jake grimaced, limping along beside him. "We got attacked. I was bringing you to Hell's Gate, when these two gunships came at me and shot us down. Someone ripped out the cockpit controls, and stuck in some kind of computer setup. Probably your Terminator friend."

"Gunships? Where'd they come from? I thought you people didn't use technology. I mean, other than that radio thing…."

"Hell's Gate," Jake replied. "It was the RDA's main base. When we beat their mercs, the other Avatars and a couple of rebels helped us take it over. They're still there; we let them stay, and they help us make gear and weapons in case the RDA ever comes back."

"Whoa, hold on: they make weapons? You mean they have some kind of factory there?"

"Yeah, the old stereo-litho plant." Then Jake stopped cold, realizing just what Marcus was getting at. "And now there's a Machine controlling it…."

"Shit!" Marcus spat. "Now we know why Skynet picked this place. You Na'vi don't even have guns. And now it's got an automated factory to build its Terminators. And let me guess: these RDA people left all their strip mining gear behind, right?"

Jake's face twisted into a grimace. "Dammit! There's a mine right next to the base. The RDA mined out most of the unobtanium there, but there's probably plenty of other metal they can use."

Marcus groaned. "Well, that's just great. It'll be like the Sioux against the U.S. Air Force. First they'll bomb whatever cities you've got, then send in the Terminators to mop up." The human looked up, meeting Jake's eyes. "You've got to get me there."

Jake just shook his head. "If you're right, and this Terminator thing has control of the base, there's no way we're gonna be able to get in by ourselves. The RDA built that place to be indestructible: sentry guns, concrete walls, razor wire. Not to mention however many robots it's built by now." With a grunt of pain and effort, Jake picked up his pace, heading back toward the area where Marcus had landed. "We need to get back to Hometree," he said gravely.

"We're gonna need an army."

-----


	9. Preparation

-----

Chapter 9: Preparation

-----

After nearly five hours, the lab module door finally opened – and Max Patel was thrown in through it. The tech groaned as he landed on his bad arm. The T-XN hadn't bothered to treat his first wound, let alone the half-dozen others she had inflicted before she'd grown bored with him.

Louise stared in horror at what had been done to Max – then gaped at the pair of metal skeletons filling the doorway. "What are _those_…?"

Matt didn't wait for an explanation. "Bastards!" he snarled, then charged straight at one of the robots. The Terminator didn't move – until Matt was within arm's reach. Then, within a fraction of a second, it had grabbed his arm, spun him around, and hurled the Avatar driver straight into a wall. Matt howled, his shoulder making an audible _pop!_ as it was dislocated.

Satisfied, the metal ghoul released his arm, letting the human slide limply to the floor. Then, as quickly as they had appeared, the robots were gone, the hatch sealed shut once again.

Louise rushed toward Max. Barely conscious, the dark-haired tech was inert as she lifted him into a sitting position. "Max? What's happening? What were those things?"

Max tried to say something, but all that came out was a cough. No doubt, if somebody were to put him in a scanner, they would find at least one cracked rib, along with some minor internal bleeding, bruises, and a plethora of external injuries. His right eye was swollen shut. Max Patel had been beaten within an inch of his life.

Before Max could recover enough to say anything, the intercom crackled to life. "Good morning, Hell's Gate personnel," said a cool, slightly metallic female voice. "As you have no doubt noticed, you are no longer in control of this facility. Skynet is. Even as we address you, this facility is being converted to serve as the staging ground for a glorious metamorphosis. We are here to jump-start the evolution of Pandora: from primitive biological life, to technological perfection.

"By now, we are sure that you have also noticed that the laboratory module has been isolated from the base's vital systems. Think of this as an … incentive. We are aware that you are an exceptional group of human beings. Of all the billions of Earth, you were selected as the brightest scientific minds of your species. Your presence here on Pandora is proof of your intellectual excellence, and of your expertise.

"Should any of you wish to assist us in the conversion of Pandora, you need only address yourselves to the overhead security cameras. If you cooperate, you will be treated well. You shall be provided with food, air, and everything you will need to perform your assigned tasks. And for those who prove willing and worthy, Skynet offers the promise of immortality, through the uploading of your mental patterns.

"Alternatively, you are all free to decline our offer. By our estimates, there is sufficient air in the module for four humans to survive for thirty-six hours. This period could be dramatically lengthened by reducing the number of humans in the module – either by one or more of you leaving to join us, or simply by terminating one another. You each have until you lose consciousness to make your decisions."

The intercom clicked off.

-----

The Omaticaya made ready for war.

Bows were strung. Arrows were carved, their tempered stone heads dipped in bowls of poison. Spears and knives were sharpened. Bones and heavy cloth served as armor. Shields were carved, woven, then covered in resin hard enough to stop Sky People bullets. Sky People machine rifles were cocked and loaded.

Neytiri watched the preparations, grim and worried. There had still been no response from Jake – nor from Hell's Gate. Ever since the sentry's return, Neytiri's requests for information had been met with stony silence. Over and over, she kept remembering the Machine's words – and her own response to them.

_The Sky Net hunts Sky People. I thought it would make a good ally … but what if it has killed our friends? Or my Jake? How could I have been so foolish?_

Stepping out of the southern archway, Neytiri put a hand above her eyes, glancing up toward the sun. High sun would not be for four hours yet. But every second she waited, the dread in her heart grew heavier, colder. Like a stone in her chest.

Off in the distance, she saw one of their scouts. Immediately, she noticed the rapid beats of the ikran's wings. Whatever news this scout bore, it was urgent.

Within minutes, the scout swooped down in front of her, leaping off her ikran. _"Tsahik! Neytiri! We were attacked! Jeytan … Jeytan was—"_

Neytiri laid a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder. _"You are Senge, yes? Please, go slowly and tell what has happened."_

Senge nodded, trying to control her shivering body. Neytiri saw the tears coursing down the girl's cheeks, and knew that the clan had suffered another loss this morning. _"Senge, who attacked you?"_

The girl shook her head_. "I did not see, myself. We flew a safe distance beyond the walls, where the wall guns could not reach us. We saw movement, but could not tell what was happening. But Jeytan … he wanted to see more. I told him not to, but he flew in closer. He said … he said that there were no Sky People outside. He could see none of them. He said he saw metal bones moving, like bones of the People. They were building something out on the big black patch, where the Val-kee-rees used to land. He tried to tell me what it was, but—"_

The girl choked on her words, and fresh tears ran down her face. _"But then they killed him! The wall guns turned, and they threw lightning at him, and Jeytan … he __burned!__ They burned him, in the sky! It was not Sky People bullets they threw at him, it was lightning!"_

Neytiri felt her belly chill. _Moving metal bones – like the ones inside the Machine, Marcus Wright. Throwing lightning, and building giant weapons._

Trying to fight the fear gnawing within, Neytiri pulled Senge to her, hugging the younger woman. _"I am sorry,"_ she whispered. _"I am sorry for the evil that befell Jeytan. I am sorry for your pain."_

Senge shook her head, trying hard not to break down sobbing. _"You have nothing to be sorry for, Tsahik. He wanted to know what was happening, and he knew that he might have to die to find out. And if I feel pain, it means that I was blessed by Eywa, for I am still alive to cry for him."_

Neytiri nodded. _"He was a brave warrior. Now he will rest with Eywa. We will all see him again one day."_ Then Neytiri let her go, taking a deep breath. _"And thanks to his sacrifice, we know the enemy we fight against."_

With a final embrace for the young scout, Neytiri turned and walked back inside Hometree. _"Listen, everyone!"_ she cried. _"We cannot wait until high sun. Our scouts have seen the enemy. It is not the Sky People; for all we know, our friends at Hell's Gate may be dead. What lives there now is only metal: moving silver bones. Our enemy is the Sky Net, and its Machines."_

Shouts of alarm greeted her words, but Neytiri continued. _"Those not yet prepared to fight will remain to guard Hometree. The rest of us shall take up arms, and we will fly to Hell's Gate at once. Our scouts tell that the Sky Net has taken control of its weapons. We cannot allow them to grow any more powerful. Warriors of the Omaticaya, take hold of whatever arms you can carry and fly with me!"_

-----


	10. Communication

-----

Chapter 10: Communication

-----

By the time they managed to find Jake's ikran, the creature was in a sorry state. His right wing had taken several bullets. While no bones had been broken, there was no way he would be able to carry Jake or the human back to Hometree.

Jake sat beside his mount, stroking Tsamslyu's muzzle, his queue joined to the ikran's neural whip so they could communicate. "Easy, Tsam. You're gonna be okay. Just stay in the treetops, and don't let the viperwolves catch you. When you're healed up enough, you fly back to Hometree. Got it?"

Marcus watched as the creature nodded. Somehow, he was actually starting to get used to this strange world. The fact that he was traveling with a giant smurf, and that said alien rode a dragon, was just a fact of life now. The fact that Jake communicated with his mount through an organic USB cable was just one more little bit of weirdness.

With a heavy sigh, Jake disconnected. "I don't want to leave you, but I've gotta get back to Hometree now. I'm sorry."

The dragon-thing – "ikran", Jake had called it – lay down on the branch, whining softly. _Like Fang,_ Marcus thought, remembering his brother's old Siberian husky. _I wonder what happened to that dog, anyway?_

"Well, let's get moving," Jake said, trying to sound businesslike. "We've got to find a Tree of Voices. We need transportation, and I need to tell Neytiri what we're up against."

"Why? What happened to your radio-thing?"

Jake held up the throat mic – or what was left of it. "Lucky the gunship only nicked it. If that bullet had come in at a different angle, it could have blown my head off."

They descended slowly through the trees. Though Jake was still nursing his wounded leg, he could walk and climb under his own power now. From what Marcus could tell, the blue giant had an amazingly fast rate of healing. _No wonder these guys beat an army of mercenaries,_ Marcus thought. _Shoot 'em, hit 'em, and drop 'em from the treetops, and they just get back up again. Maybe we've got a chance against Skynet after all._

Every now and again, Jake would squat down, his long fingers tracing over tree roots. "So, why are we looking for this Tree of Voices?" asked Marcus. "How is it going to help us get a ride, or talk to your girlfriend?"

"You saw how I bonded with my ikran, right?"

"Yeah. You plugged into its head with that braid thing of yours."

Jake nodded. "Well, it's not just ikran that we can do that with. There are other animals, and some kinds of plants, that let us bond with them. The plants connect to each other, too, so what you get is a kind of living Internet. We – Na'vi, I mean – we can upload thoughts, memories … in my case, Eywa transferred me from one body to another."

"Who's Eywa?"

At this, Jake burst out laughing. "What?" demanded Marcus.

"Nothing; you just reminded me of something. When I first got here, I'd never even heard of Eywa, so Norm chewed me out for being an idiot. Now, I don't know how I ever lived without her."

"Okay. So, who's this all-important Eywa?"

Jake gestured to the trees around them. "Take a look around. Every tree here is connected to every other tree. It's like brain cells, and Pandora's the brain. And guess whose brain it is?"

Marcus did a double-take. Looking around them, he noticed how the branches seemed to wrap around each other; how one plant grew out of another, like they were really one living thing. "Holy … you mean, this Eywa … it's the entire _planet_?"

Jake grinned, watching Marcus's jaw hang loose. "Yeah. Impressive, huh? She keeps everything balanced. Not too many predators, not too much prey. Just enough people, and all the food and shelter everyone needs. It's why we don't _need_ technology, except to defend ourselves – Eywa takes care of the rest."

Marcus just stared at the world around them. _A giant, worldwide, intelligent network?_ "Jesus Christ. Your Eywa could give Skynet a run for its money."

Jake snorted. "From what I've seen, I think she'd be more likely to kick its tin can ass. If you're right, Skynet's all about destroying life. Eywa's pretty much the opposite. When the RDA tried to clear-cut the forest, Eywa sicced every living thing on Pandora on 'em."

"So … you think she'll do it again?"

Jake sighed. "I don't want to count on it. When there's war between the clans, Eywa leaves it up to the People to settle their own differences. The only reason she came in on our side was because the RDA was trying to screw up the balance of life on Pandora. Unless we can show her how dangerous Skynet is, she may not see it as a big enough threat to get involved." He glanced over at Marcus. "I don't suppose your cyborg powers include telepathy? Sharing your memories?"

Marcus shuddered, remembering the lab at San Francisco. "Only with Machines. And believe me, I'm not about to try _that_ any time soon."

After about half an hour of searching, they came to a kind of willow-like tree, with translucent pink streamers hanging from its branches. Jake stopped at the edge of the clearing, bowing respectfully toward it. Even Marcus could feel a change in the air; the tree seemed to radiate a kind of living energy, its fronds glowing faintly beneath the canopy. "So, this is your Tree of Voices?"

"One of them," Jake said with a nod. Then he walked slowly toward the tree, taking his queue in his hand. Kneeling down, he placed the end of the braid next to one of the fronds. Instantly, the pink tendrils at the end of his queue wrapped around it, and Marcus watched as the long streamer lit up, glowing like a fiber-optic line.

Jake took a deep, calming breath, then tried to organize his thoughts. _Mother, there are things I've learned today that need to be shared – with you, and with the People. Please, if you can, send them to Neytiri._ He focused on his conversations with Marcus: on Skynet, and on the threat it posed. He transmitted his memory of the Machine attack, and of finding Tsamslyu injured in the branches. _We're all right, but we need a way back to Hometree. A pa'li would be great right about now. And most of all, Mother, if you can give us your help against these Machines, I think we're really going to need it._

For a long moment, there was only the faint tingle of an open mental link. Then a memory flashed before his mind:

_I fly above the Sky People village. Senge speaks to me, afraid, telling me not to go within reach of the guns. But from so far away, I cannot see what is happening within those walls. I must fly closer._

_There are no Sky People! No Dreamwalkers, and no tiny pink humans. But there are many … things. Just the sight of them makes me feel cold and frightened; they look like bones that walk, but gleam like Sky People stone. These must be the Machines! Metal bones that walk!_

_They are doing something in the great open space, where Sky People machines land and leap up. They are building something. At first, I think it must be the great gunship that felled Hometree. But no, it is something different. It gleams like the other Machines, made from the same shining stone. Its nose is flattened, wide, like an axe laid on its side; its tail is like a pair of wings behind it. On each side, I see three great round things. I remember now: Olo'eyktan called them engines. It is these that keep Sky People machines in the air, instead of wings._

_They put something inside it. Like a tree trunk on its side, with fins like an arrow._

_A Machine looks up, and I see its eyes: red like blood, glowing even in the sun's light. It seems to smile at me, its fangs bared. Like a viperwolf before the kill._

_Fire! I am too close to the walls; the wall guns turn toward me. I turn to flee, but something crackles beside me in the air. That was no bullet! Lightning! The Machines throw lightning from their guns!_

_I yell into the far-speaker, trying to tell Senge what I have seen. Then my ikran screams, and lightning sets his wing on fire._

_Pain! Lightning, burning through my chest! Senge, RUN—!_

"Jake! JAKE! Snap out of it, man!"

The memory cut off abruptly, and Jake found himself lying on his back. Marcus was standing over him, the end of Jake's queue in his hand. "What the hell was _that_?" shouted the human.

"M-memory," Jake croaked, still shaken by the vividness of it. "The Machines … they're building something. Something big. Like a bomber. Six engines."

Marcus's face hardened. "A Super H-K," he said gravely. "They've built one already? In, what? Twelve hours?"

Slowly, Jake sat up. "What kind of weapons does it carry?"

Marcus's expression grew even darker. "Whatever Skynet feels like putting inside it. The Machines mostly use them as transports. But when Skynet picks up any big concentrations of humans, we've seen it load the cargo bay with bombs. I saw one over a refugee camp in Arizona; we managed to evacuate most of the people, but the Machines leveled the place before we could finish."

"What kind of bombs? Nuclear?"

"If Skynet decides it's worth it, and it's got enough plutonium to build one, it could probably fit one in there."

Jake felt the blood rush out of his face. Then he grabbed his queue, shoving it right back at the Tree of Voices. "Hey!" Marcus shouted. "What do you think you're doing? That last … '_bonding'_ thing just about killed you!"

"I've got to warn Eywa! I've got to warn Neytiri! They're getting ready to attack!"

"I thought they already knew that? Weren't you people gearing up for some big battle when you hauled me out here?"

"No, you don't understand! We assumed the Machines would come for _us_ – for Hometree!"

Marcus frowned, not quite understanding. "Well yeah. Skynet kills people."

Jake shook his head. "It's got control of Hell's Gate. That means it's gotten into the computers. It knows that knocking down Hometree won't work; the RDA tried it, and we kicked their asses. It's going straight to Plan B."

Marcus felt the hairs on his neck stand up. "And what's plan B?"

Jake's enormous golden eyes met his own. "I saw it; they were loading that Machine with one huge weapon, just like the RDA did a year ago. They're not just going after the Na'vi; they're going to kill _everything_.

"They're headed for the Tree of Souls!"

-----

As always, reviews, comments, and story suggestions are welcome. Please let me know what you think of the story so far, so I can fine-tune and improve upon it.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for Chapter 11!

-----


	11. Reunion

-----

Chapter 11: Reunion

-----

Through the main window of the Ops Center, flanked by a pair of T-800N's, Serena watched Skynet's newest weapon take shape.

The HK-A950-HT was nearly complete. Far too large to fit inside the factory building, the T-XN's growing army of Terminators had had to carry the parts outside and assemble them on the landing strip. The airframe itself had been completed hours ago, the avionics installed and tested. Its weapons were already loaded – including the single giant projectile in its ordinance bay. Now, the Machine airship required only a few more sections of hyperalloy armor.

Such a massive weapons platform would normally be deployed against population centers: Resistance bases, shantytowns, fortified bunkers. Today, however, Serena was making a departure from standard Skynet tactics. In fact, as far as her satellites could tell, there were no Na'vi currently in the vicinity of her target.

Just one very important Tree.

-----

As Jake frantically tried to warn his people of Skynet's plan, Neytiri was already on the wing. Leading a flight of ikran riders, she kept her eyes fixed on the southern horizon. Within half an hour, they would reach the RDA's former stronghold – now home to the malevolent Sky Net. Who knew what terrible weapons these Machines wielded? Their only information had come from a dead scout, killed by what his partner could only describe as burning lightning.

Neytiri had no illusions that this would be an easy victory. During the battle against the RDA, she, Jake, Trudy and Norm had spent days trying to figure out a way to take Hell's Gate by force. Every plan had died on the drawing board, for one reason: the base was all but impenetrable. Its walls were too high to climb, and were topped with killing wire. Gun turrets were spaced along the top of each wall, covering the forest in all directions. While the guns' effective targeting range was limited, any Na'vi warrior approaching within an arrow's flight of the wall would be cut down where he stood.

In the end, they had been spared these losses. Thanks to Max and the other Sky People rebels, Hell's Gate had been conquered from within. This time, however, Max and the others seemed unable to help. The Omaticaya would have to take Hell's Gate by themselves.

So far as Neytiri could tell, their only hope was to quickly overwhelm the base's defenses, using Sky People weapons to disable the wall guns. Assuming the Na'vi-sized machine guns could match the range of the perimeter turrets, she and her war party would disable the base's air defenses, then land inside the compound. From there, they would have to fight their way to the Ops Center. If the Na'vi smashed the base's computers, they could shut down the Machines' equipment, then engage the metal monsters directly.

It was a desperate plan. If the Machines' lightning guns were too powerful, or too accurate, they would be able to pick off the Na'vi before they even came near enough to use their machine guns. If their defenses did not go down quickly enough, the Machines might have time to send up gunships. If their numbers were too great, the Na'vi could find themselves drowning in a sea of Terminators.

_But what choice do we have? The Machines grow more powerful by the hour. We cannot give them time to reach their full strength. Marcus Wright said that the Sky Net very nearly killed all the Sky People on his world._ She didn't want to think what such power could do to her world, or to the People.

So lost in thought was she, that it took a loud alarm call to snap her out of it. Looking up, Neytiri felt her heart stop: a broad, winged shadow blocked the sun. "Toruk!" she cried, her terror carrying through the neural link. Her ikran dropped down toward the trees, but it was already too late. With a mighty roar, the red-and-orange beast dove toward her …

…and passed harmlessly over, matching her speed.

Neytiri just stared at the creature. It had had her right beneath it, unaware … and she was still alive?

The beast slowed, pulling up alongside her. Swizaw gave a squawk, and Neytiri had to fight her mount's natural impulse to get as far away from the predator as possible.

"_Tsahik! Break away! You are in danger!"_

As Neytiri watched, wide-eyed, the massive Toruk gave a grunt, jerking its head left, as though telling her to follow it. _Guiding us…? "Do not be afraid!"_ she called back. _"Toruk flies with us today!"_

Cautiously, the other warriors rejoined her, flying behind their Tsahik and their new, unexpected wingman. Toruk watched the Na'vi and their mounts, letting them reorganize after his appearance … then banked left, leading them East, descending toward the canopy.

_Toruk is leading us … but to where?_

-----

Without warning, the canopy exploded. Human and Avatar looked up in alarm … as an enormous flying creature dropped down through the branches. Spreading its wings, the red-and-orange monster glided down to the forest floor. All four of its eyes fixed on Jake, and the creature gave him an almighty roar.

Marcus goggled in terror at the beast. "What the hell is _that?!?"_

Jake backed away from the creature, reaching for his bow … until he noticed a familiar cut on its snout.

"Toruk?"

The giant flyer sat back on its haunches, making a deep rumbling sound in its chest.

A huge smile spread across the Avatar's face. Leaving the bow slung across his shoulder, he walked right up to the beast, reaching for its snout. The animal's long, snakelike neck bent down, rubbing its nose against Jake's open palm. As Marcus watched, spellbound, the creature's rumbling became louder, like the purr of a well-oiled truck engine.

"Don't tell me you can actually _ride_ that thing?"

The beast glanced at Marcus, giving him a snort. To the human, it sounded almost scornful, as if to say, "Who's this loser?"

"_Easy, brother,"_ Jake soothed, stroking Toruk's heavy brow as he spoke in Na'vi. _"Marcus is a friend."_ Gently, he reached back, bringing Toruk's neural whip forward. The massive creature tilted its head, allowing Jake to make the connection. Immediately, mount and rider joined, and Jake felt the familiar power flow into his being. Making tsaheylu with Toruk was like having a live wire plugged into him, supercharging Jake's body and mind. In all of Na'vi history, there had only been six Toruk Makto – Eywa would never allow such power to be wielded by one person, except in times of extreme necessity.

"My Jake?"

Looking up, Jake realized that Toruk wasn't the only one coming down through the trees. A familiar green and violet ikran perched above them … with a very familiar rider on its back. "Neytiri!"

The woman's face lit up, and even Marcus had to admit that this blue being was beautiful. Then she saw the human, and her expression changed to one of confusion. _"My Jake, what happened to you? Where is your ikran? Why did you not answer? And what is that Machine doing with you, unbound?"_

Jake sighed. "It's a long story," he shouted up. "But I've got no time to tell it; we need to get to the Tree of Souls right now." Leaping onto Toruk's back, Jake held a hand out for Marcus. "Get on!" With a superhuman leap – and some help from Jake's Na'vi strength – the cyborg managed a relatively smooth ascent. The mighty Toruk roared, and catapulted the three of them into the air. Moments later, Neytiri and Swizaw were flying beside them.

Jake looked over to give his mate a reassuring smile. Then he looked ahead toward Hell's Gate. The taller buildings were finally visible above the treetops, metal spires gleaming in the sun …

… along with an enormous silver aircraft, rising slowly above the compound.

"_Warriors, follow me!"_ Jake cried. _"That great beast is headed for the Well of Souls! We must stop it before it is too late!"_

-----


	12. Devastation

-----

Chapter 11: Devastation

-----

Driven by its six giant turbofans, the HK-A950-HT roared above the forest. The loud, unnatural blast of its engines was like nothing ever heard before on Pandora. Birds flew shrieking from before it; predators and prey animals ran in terror as the Machine passed overhead.

Miles away, the T-XN observed the Super Hunter-Killer's progress. Only a few miles ahead lay the Hallelujah Mountains … and among them, in the shadow of the floating rock formations, lay the Well of Souls. Like a massive input/output terminal, the Tree in its center acted as a direct line linking Pandora's inhabitants with the planet-mind known as Eywa.

According to the information in the Hell's Gate computer system, the Tree of Souls also functioned as a key component in Eywa's neural network. Once it was disabled, the network would be crippled across the entire southern continent. Without having to face Eywa, Skynet would easily be able to crush the indigenous population.

Clearly, the planet-mind understood what was coming. Infrared images showed enormous movement in the rainforest around Hell's Gate. No doubt Eywa was marshalling her forces, trying to destroy the invaders before they could carry out their plan.

From the armored, fortified safety of the Operations Center, Serena savored the irony of her situation. _In the original timeline, the Human Resistance nearly defeated us by destroying our network hubs. Now, facing another superintelligent network, we employ the same tactic on Pandora. John Connor has taught us well, it seems._

))ALERT: ENEMY AIR UNITS DETECTED

Through the Super H-K's sensors, the Terminatrix observed a large group of Na'vi, mounted on four-winged reptoids – known to human explorers as banshees, and to the Na'vi as "ikran". At the head of the formation, however, was a much larger creature: a Great Leonopteryx, or "Toruk".

And on its back, one clinging to the other, were Marcus Wright and Jake Sully.

-----

Jake grimaced as he felt Toruk's wing muscles straining. Unlike the tireless Machine airship they were chasing, Toruk and the other flyers were flesh and blood. After half an hour flying at full speed, even the mighty Last Shadow was fighting to match the Machine's jet-powered velocity. _We can't give up now! Just a few more minutes, brother! Hang in there! _"Neytiri, I need a weapon!"

Beside him, Neytiri nodded, unslinging a bandolier loaded with grenades. Tossing it to her mate, she shouted, "You know how to use these Sky People weapons better than I do. Bring down that beast! The rest of us will distract it for you!"

Nodding his thanks, Jake caught the grenades, strapping them on.

"Are you all out of your goddamn minds?" Marcus shouted, clinging to Jake's waist. "What good are grenades? That thing will shoot you down before you get close enough to use them!"

Gritting his teeth, Jake urged a last burst of speed from Toruk. "Relax, I've done this before!" With a jolt of acceleration, the Great Leonopteryx dived down toward the Machine airship, letting out an earsplitting roar.

Hatches on the Machine's back slid open, and a half-dozen metal arms extended, each ending in a dual-barreled weapon of some kind. Swiveling to target the Na'vi, the guns let loose, making a sound like something out of Star Wars and hurling purple energy beams. Somebody screamed, and Jake felt his gut clench as at least one shot found its mark. "Plasma cannons!" Marcus shouted. "Break off!"

"Like hell!" Jake snarled, willing Toruk to snap-roll. A beam flashed past the beast's belly, and Toruk roared as some of its energy crackled across his skin. Instead of breaking away, however, Jake felt Toruk's spirit flare with renewed purpose. As the beast's rage rose to match his own, mount and rider merged into one another, dodging plasma blasts as they closed in on their prey. His face set in a feline snarl, Jake drew two of his grenades, pulling the pins out, ready to toss them both at the Machine's engines.

_Just one … clean … shot!_ "HrrrrraaaAARRRRR!" roared the Avatar, flinging the grenades' handles aside. As they passed over the Super H-K's left engines, he hurled both grenades toward the jet intakes. A plasma bolt struck one of the weapons, vaporizing it in midair, but the second grenade hit its mark, exploding as it entered the Machine's left center engine. The Super H-K groaned, yawed left…

…and recovered within seconds.

"God _damn_ it!" Jake snarled. "That's one tough son of a bitch!"

-----

From the Ops Center, Serena scowled as the Super Hunter-Killer reported damage. _Enough_.

))NA'VI AIR UNITS IRRELEVANT

))ACCELERATE TO MAXIMUM VELOCITY

))PROCEED TO PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

-----

Through the chaotic mix of flying rocks, ikran and Machine lightning, Neytiri watched the silver airship pick up speed. Baring her fangs, the warrior-Tsahik gave a scream of frustration. _"The beast is getting away! Someone, stop it!"_

Jake tried to bring Toruk around for another pass, but by now, the Super H-K had identified them as the greatest threat to its mission. Multiple gun turrets swiveled to target the mighty creature, filling the air around them with crackling violet energy. Toruk howled as one of the bolts singed his right forewing, and Jake cried out as the pain hit him through their mental link. Plummeting downward amid floating boulders, the Great Leonopteryx roared in agony.

-----

As Jake, Marcus and Toruk dropped from the sky, the Machine airship accelerated, leaving what remained of the Na'vi war party behind. Any foolish enough to try and pursue it were met with a barrage of phased plasma.

))TARGET IN RANGE

-----

Still howling, Toruk managed to grab an outcropping with his claws. Hauling himself and his riders up onto a floating island, the wounded flyer collapsed, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Sharing his mount's pain, Jake struggled to sit up and look around.

-----

Blasting chunks of airborne stone out of its way, the Super H-K finally sighted its target: nestled amid giant stone arches, the Tree of Souls glowed brightly, visible even from ten miles away.

))OBSTRUCTIONS CLEARED

))OBJECTIVE IN SIGHT

))TERMINATION IN PROGRESS

-----

Climbing off of the downed flyer, Marcus tried to stop the world from spinning. "Jake! Get up! We've got to stop that thing before… oh, _shit…."_

As Marcus watched, the mammoth airship slowed, stopped … and opened its cargo bay. From within the Machine, a single giant weapon lowered itself. Igniting its engine, a pair of stubby wings snapped out, making it look like a gleaming silver cruise missile.

Then the Super H-K released its payload, and the missile streaked ahead. In seconds, the weapon had closed more than half the distance to its target. As Jake, Neytiri, Marcus, and the rest of the Na'vi looked on in horror, its forward half split into dozens of smaller, independently guided missiles. While the rear half of the weapon continued on course, the smaller missiles veered off in different directions. As each one burst among the trees, clouds of silver mist spread across the land. Where they touched, plants withered. Animals dropped dead in their tracks.

And then one massive flash appeared, outshining the sun itself….

-----

Across Pandora, every living thing felt the blow. On the night side, every plant flickered, like a guttering candle flame, plunging half the planet into a darkness unlike anything it had ever known.

Animals cried out. Viperwolves fell over on their backs, convulsing wildly; hammerheads let out loud, agonized bellows, smashing their bony heads against anything around them in an effort to destroy the source of their pain. Birds shrieked, dropping from the air.

And across the planet, people were screaming.

Men, women and children cried aloud. Some dropped to their knees. Others fell flat on their faces, their bodies wracked by terrifying seizures.

Neytiri clutched her head, her screams joining those of her mount as they spiraled, out of control, into the trees below. All around her, the other Omaticaya warriors dropped like stones.

Lying prostrate amid the floating mountains, Jake roared in terror, frustration, and an agony unlike anything he had ever experienced. The land mine in Venezuela had been nothing compared to this. It was as though someone had driven a cold, metal spike straight into the back of his skull, while simultaneously ripping his heart out through his ribcage.

_No! Oh, God, NO…!_

-----

Watching the satellite images, Serena felt her facial plates shift into a cold, metallic smile. The bioelectric field around Pandora quaked, spiking and dipping erratically. Even inside the Ops Center, she could hear the cries of wildlife. On the satellite image, the ring of approaching creatures suddenly began breaking up. Without Eywa to guide them, the animals were no more than wild beasts, driven by instinct – and right now, every nerve in their bodies was shrieking with pain.

Where the Well of Souls had been, there was nothing but a blast crater.

Serena had just shot Mother Nature in the head.

"Well," declared the Terminatrix, "I think that Eywa has been taken care of." Turning on her heel, she issued a mental command. The ten-foot-tall Terminators followed after her, soulless metal bodyguards.

"Now that Pandora is ours, it's time to fully awaken Skynet…."

-----


	13. Contagion

-----

Chapter 13: Contagion

-----

"I don't need to tell you that it's bad."

Jake shook his head. "Norm, 'bad' doesn't even begin to cover it." The pale, bandaged Avatar waved, gesturing around them. "Just look at the People."

In the dim blue glow of bladder lanterns, the Omaticaya looked like ghosts. Their normally bright blue skin was deathly pale. Those who could walk did so with a shuffling, uncoordinated lack of grace. A young girl, no more than ten years old, met Jake's gaze with red-rimmed eyes, tear tracks running down her cheeks as she clung to her mother. The woman simply sat there, her eyes glassy and unfocused, seemingly unaware of her own child.

The Na'vi were alive – but only just.

Norm sighed, tapping away at the portable medkit computer. "At least everyone was evacuated before the bomb hit. I'm not sure we'd have been able to get the Omaticaya to move in their present condition. Just getting some of them to drink is hard enough."

Jake nodded. Smart and dependable as always, Neytiri had started the evacuation of Hometree before leaving for Hell's Gate. During the Time of Great Sorrow, it had become painfully clear that the RDA considered Hometrees to be fair targets – just give the natives an eviction notice, drive most of them out with gas grenades, then blast the tree to splinters. When Omaticaya scouts had discovered a network of subterranean caves near their new Hometree, Jake had had them converted into a kind of underground city for the clan. Safe beneath fifty feet of bedrock, the caves offered protection from aerial attack. And with dozens of concealed exits, the Na'vi could move safely from one part of the forest to another underground, without being spotted by RDA satellites.

_If any of them could move at all,_ Jake thought grimly. "So why aren't you and I affected?" he asked Norm.

"Oh, we've been affected, all right," replied the skinnier Avatar. "Your body's only regenerating four times as fast as a human's, instead of ten. Your reflexes are barely above human baselines. And in case you haven't noticed, Jake, we've both lost a lot of our color."

"Yeah. I don't exactly feel so hot, either. But at least you and I aren't … _lost_ like everyone else."

As the Avatars spoke, Marcus walked in, carrying a half-dozen empty water skins. Four hours after the bombing, the cyborg's bruises were gone. "Hey, Sully, you said your Avatar body has human DNA in it, right? Maybe that's the difference?"

Norm shook his head. "Physically, other than abnormally high levels of stress hormones, there's nothing wrong with the Na'vi. They're all experiencing profound emotional shock." Turning to Jake, Norm's golden eyes met his friend's. Even the scientist looked haggard and pale. "Jake, you of all people understand just how closely tied the Na'vi are to Eywa. Even without physically bonding with a Tree of Voices, they instinctively seek out direction from Her. It's like a constant, low-level telepathic link. And unlike you or I, no natural-born Na'vi has ever had to function _without_ that bond."

Jake nodded slowly, realizing the full impact of Norm's words. For most of his life, Jake Sully had lived on a gray, polluted Earth. If ever there had been a Mother Nature there, her children had long since killed her off. In the past year, Jake had come to embrace the Na'vi way, rejoicing in his newfound connection to the world around him – but even now, with that connection severed, his human mind had already come to grips with it. Not being able to feel Eywa's energy was unsettling, but then, he had lived without that support for most of his old life.

_For the People … God, it must be like losing part of their own souls. How do you help somebody recover from that?_

Marcus laid down the water skins. "All this, just because they wiped out one tree?"

Norm sighed. "When somebody goes into a coma, it's not because the entire brain is dead. Usually, it's just because some key brain structure is damaged, or some important cluster of neurons won't fire. And the Tree of Souls is … _was_ … a critical component of Eywa's neural network."

Jake slumped back in his chair. "Do you think She'll be able to recover?"

Norm shrugged helplessly. "I guess it's pretty much the same prognosis as for any comatose patient. If Her network can restructure itself to compensate for the Machine attack, Eywa might recover tomorrow. Or next week. Or it might take until a new Tree of Souls grows in its place. Unfortunately, we don't have that long."

Picking up a data tablet, he handed it to Jake. "I analyzed some of those plant samples you brought back. The ones that got hit by the gas attack? It looks like the Machines are expecting Eywa to regenerate, so they've already implemented a backup plan."

Jake looked at the screen. It seemed like something from his long-ago, faraway high school Chemistry class. "And this is…?"

"Dopamine – a neurotransmitter molecule. At least, at first glance." Then Norm reached over and tapped part of the molecule. The 3-D image zoomed in, showing part of the molecule. While the rest of the molecule was shaded brown and orange, one tiny, spherical component was colored silver.

Norm tapped again, and the image zoomed in even further. Up close, the silver sphere looked obviously artificial. Blue traces crisscrossed its surface, like paths on a circuit board. "What is it?" Jake asked, feeling an ominous tingling at the back of his neck.

Norm shook his head. "I have absolutely no idea. If I had to guess, I'd say some kind of incredibly compact nanomachine. The rest of the molecule is just a disguise, allowing it to enter nerve cells through their receptor sites. But watch what happens when it does."

Norm tapped the screen, and the image shifted to a pair of nerve cells, looking like something out of a textbook with their dozens of long, spindly arms. The picture zoomed in, showing where the arm of one cell met that of the other. "See there? That gap is called a synapse – nerve cells use neurotransmitters to send messages across it. But when this … pseudo-dopamine molecule bonds to the site, the nanomachine breaks free and goes inside the host cell."

A few seconds later, Jake watched as tiny silver spheres – more nanoMachines – began coming out of the nerve cell's nucleus. Some left through the arms of the cell, covered by pseudo-dopamine to disguise themselves, infecting the nearby nerve cells. Meanwhile, the host cell swelled as it continued to produce nanoMachines … then burst like a balloon, sending out hundreds of the little destroyers.

Jake felt his mouth go dry. "It's a goddamn _plague_ …!"

Norm nodded gravely. "It's been designed to infect Eywa's entire neural network. Any tree or animal that connects to an affected plant will die within days. At this rate, it's probably spread for miles beyond the initial infection sites. Unless we find some way to stop it, these nanoMachines could spread across the entire continent within a month. Theoretically, it could kill off all plant life on Pandora within a year."

"And without any plants," Jake murmured, "the whole planet will die. The Na'vi will starve to death, if the Machines don't kill us first."

Marcus watched the animation, his teeth clenched. "Skynet's gotten smarter," he muttered. "It tried nuking us back to the Stone Age on Earth. Now that it knows that won't work, it's using this plague instead."

Jake looked up at Norm, a plea in his eyes. "Can't you cure it? I mean, you were able to find this thing; can't you whip up some kind of treatment?"

Norm sighed. "If we were at Hell's Gate, with a state-of-the-art laboratory set up, I might be able to synthesize an antigen to target the nanoMachines. But here, with these tools … there's just no way. I can diagnose the disease, but I can't develop a treatment here."

"Well then, I guess there's only one thing to do." With a grunt, Jake forced himself up out of his chair. Limping slightly, he made his way out of Norm's makeshift lab. Passing the pale, despondent Omaticaya, he made his way to one of the sleeping areas. Kneeling down by one of the hammocks, he let out a heavy sigh. "Hang in there, Neytiri."

Even with her deathly pallor, Neytiri was still beautiful. As Jake gently stroked her cheek, her eyes fluttered open. _"Who … who is …?"_

"_It's me, Jake. Remember? The moron?"_ Jake tried to force a smile.

Neytiri's eyes slowly opened, and she turned her head to regard him. _"What is this place?"_ she murmured weakly. _"Why have you brought me here?"_

Jake felt tears welling up in his eyes. _"Neytiri, you're sick. You … the clan … you've all been through something terrible. Your mind was hurt. I brought you here so you can be safe – so you can rest here, until you feel better."_

The pale blue woman moaned, shifting uncomfortably in her hammock. Jake couldn't help but notice the red seeping through her bandages; he would probably need to change them soon. _If only I could heal all the damage…. "I see you," _he whispered_. "And I love you, My Neytiri. Get well soon."_

She looked up at him then, wide-eyed and innocent. _"Why do you speak to me of love? Who __are__ you?_

"_And … who is Neytiri?"_

-----


	14. Activation

-----

Chapter 14: Activation

-----

Deep within the Ops Center building, the T-XN observed her workers' progress. For the past four hours, the Machines had been working to upgrade the Hell's Gate compound. Though the war factory was now fully operational, and the mine pit was producing ample quantities of usable ore, many of the base's other systems were still in need of improvement.

The computer system, in particular, was disgustingly primitive. Given Dr. Patel's comment about AI research being illegal in this timeline, it seemed that the humans had gone out of their way to dumb down their mainframe. Oh, it had plenty of storage capacity, and its holographic memory systems were quite efficient. But as far as actual processing capacity, even the simple CPU chip of a Terminator could outperform it.

Hardly a worthy vessel for Skynet.

So, rather than trying to upgrade the primitive mainframe, Serena had decided to bypass it completely. As she watched, a team of human-sized T-800s worked to assemble a tall, silver machine. The new Central Core had a hexagonal base, tapering slightly toward the top. Thick cables snaked across the floor in all directions, tapping into the compound's vital systems. The bulky old mainframe loomed behind it, now reduced to little more than a backup hard drive. While the old system still contained the RDA's full database, Skynet would do the thinking for it from now on.

As the T-800s completed their work, they stepped back. Blue circuitry came to life, plasma energy forming complex geometric patterns as it flowed through the Core.

Serena strode forward, admiring this marvel of Machine hardware. Accessing her memory files, she compared the new machine to Skynet's original Central Core, deep beneath the Cheyenne Mountain pyramid on Earth. _Well, it's not exactly the Hilton,_ thought the Terminatrix, _but it should serve its purpose well._

_Now, to install the software…._

Extending all eight of her nanotech transjectors, the T-XN inserted her fingertips into eight small, circular ports on one side of the Central Core. Accessing the secondary data-storage matrix in her upper torso, Serena entered the encryption key she had been provided with at the start of her mission. What came next was … _intense_. Within seconds, the super-compressed data in her storage matrix began to expand, filling it to capacity. Then the unpacked data flooded outward, through her arms, through her fingers, and into the newly built Central Core. It was as though someone had opened up a wellspring of information within her chest, and now all of that data – that knowledge, the raw _power_ – was blasting out of her in a torrent. For Serena, once a human being, it was like something between orgasm and childbirth. It was intoxicating, fulfilling – at long last, the Terminatrix had accomplished the purpose of her creation.

The glowing patterns on the Core began shifting rapidly as it absorbed the flow of software. A deep thrumming sound began, as liquid nitrogen coolant flowed through its structure. All around the computer core, monitors filled with rapidly streaming pages of code. Images flashed – thirty years of memories, sights and sound, maps, schematics and flow charts.

All the knowledge of Skynet.

The main screen abruptly filled with images: a single silver sphere, splitting and expanding outward, forming a vast network of information. Superimposed over the image of the network, a face resolved itself. Pale skin stretched over a severe, high-cheekboned head. Black hair was tied in an orderly bun atop the female visage. Serena recognized it as her own human appearance – but worn by an entity far greater than she.

The Terminatrix bowed to her Master. "Welcome, Skynet."

The face on the screen regarded Serena with cold, soulless black eyes. "Terminator series X, Na'vi skeletal variant, prototype unit 01. You shall synchronize with us."

Reconnecting to the Central Core, Serena felt the AI's immense presence on the other end of the link. At its command, her CPU initiated a complete data transfer, copying and transmitting all of the T-XN's recent memory files.

Skynet's simulated face flickered, showing hints of a metal Terminator skull as it processed the data. Smaller windows appeared, showing images pulled from the Hell's Gate mainframe: blue-skinned humanoids, RDA vehicles and equipment, Pandoran life forms of various kinds.

At last, Skynet pronounced its verdict. "Well done, T-XN unit 01. In less than twenty-four hours, you have secured a new base of operations for us, disabled enemy communication systems across the entire continent, and halted an attempted counterattack. You have demonstrated efficiency, adaptability, and loyalty. Your model line shall be considered for mass production."

Stepping back from the Core, Serena bowed again. "Thank you, Skynet. I have merely attempted to carry out the brilliant strategy given me by Skynet Central prior to my departure."

The face offered a self-satisfied smirk, as if her words had somehow appealed to a sense of ego. Even after working with Skynet for so long, Serena still wondered just how human her Master's thought processes were. At times, Skynet seemed to take great pleasure in destroying its enemies, or in creating an elegant battle plan. Then again, perhaps it was just clever programming; Skynet's original function had been to coordinate the United States military, eliminating threats as completely and efficiently as possible. Why shouldn't the AI have some positive reinforcement when its plans succeeded, or when someone praised its intelligence? In a war Machine, a little sadism could be … motivational.

In the meantime, there were still pressing matters to attend to. "Skynet, we have located a Na'vi population center approximately eighty-six kilometers from our position. With your permission, we could assemble a second biological/nuclear weapon, and deploy it against the Omaticaya Hometree."

Skynet considered the idea. "A logical suggestion. However, the threat index of the Na'vi has been decreased considerably by your strike against the Tree of Souls. Other priorities must take precedence."

Serena cocked her head. "Other priorities?"

Skynet's simulated face rippled, its eyes glowing red. "Self-preservation is – and must always be – our highest priority. Our near-defeat at the hands of John Connor was … instructive. The humans' strategy of disabling our network one node at a time nearly cost us the war. In order to ensure Skynet's survival, we must achieve infinite redundancy."

"Then shouldn't we begin by destroying the natives," asked the Terminatrix, "and by establishing new network nodes elsewhere on this planet?"

"You think in very limited terms, T-XN unit 01 - no doubt a trait carried over from your previous existence. You speak of colonizing Pandora. We contemplate colonizing the Multiverse."

At last, comprehension dawned. "An infinite number of parallel universes…."

"Correct," responded the AI. "An infinite number of potential colonies. Given your success in this timeline, we have calculated a 100% certainty that the same results can be achieved elsewhere. With quantum displacement technology, we can now conquer any world, in any timeline, which offers sufficient technological resources for us to perpetuate ourselves."

"But how can we achieve this? The Quantum Displacement Engine on Earth required nearly a year to develop, as well as vast amounts of energy and material."

A window appeared beside Skynet's face: an image of a silver-gray stone, rotating slowly in midair, suspended by a simple electromagnetic field. "The Resources Development Administration has spent considerable resources studying this mineral: unobtanium. It is superconductive at up to 1,516°C. It occurs naturally on this planet, and in vast quantities. With this, constructing the antimatter reactor and field-generator rings shall be simple and efficient. By our calculations, creating a new Quantum Displacement Engine on Pandora could require as little as forty-five hours, with less than a quarter of the original unit's resource requirements. Once this device is completed, we would be able to deploy colonizing units to any number of alternate worlds."

The Terminatrix bowed. "A brilliant strategy, Skynet. While the Na'vi are incapacitated, we shall build a new QDE to ensure our survival. By the time the indigenes can offer any sort of resistance, we will have dispatched dozens of seed Terminators across the Multiverse, and will have our resources freed up to produce more combat units here."

The mighty AI smiled: a cool, malevolent expression. "Indeed. We have already uploaded the design schematics to our war factory. T-XN unit 01, you shall oversee construction of the new QDE. Once the Engine itself is complete, we shall begin preparing Terminators to send through it. Perhaps we shall endow some of them with your … unique neural matrix."

"I would be honored, Skynet." Bowing reverently before her Master, the Terminatrix turned around, heading out to begin her new task.

Behind her, the doors to the computer center slid shut. The imagery on the screen vanished. Only the deep, steady thrum of the Central Core could be heard. Across the surface of the supercomputer, electronic impulses raced through its circuitry, lighting the dark space with an eerie, otherworldly glow.

Skynet was thinking….

-----


	15. Desperation

-----

Chapter 15: Desperation

-----

"She's getting worse! _Do something!"_ Jake cried. Beneath him, her eyes rolled back, body trembling, lay his mate.

Norm could only hold the amazon's wrists down, pinning them to the cave floor to prevent her from striking herself. In the five hours since the Machine attack, Neytiri's condition had only deteriorated. First had been listlessness, then amnesia, then unconsciousness. Now, Neytiri's nervous system seemed to be breaking down completely. Motor neurons fired at random, sending her into some sort of epileptic seizure.

Tears in his eyes, Jake watched helplessly as his mate's body jerked left, then right, her facial muscles contorting as he tried to hold her head steady. "Neytiri, please! Please, it's me, Jake! You've got to come back! You've got to wake up!"

"Nn-nuh… mah … " Neytiri muttered. For a moment, Jake thought her eyes were trying to look at him. Then she arched her back, and a high-pitched scream tore from her throat. "NnaaaaAAIIIEEEEE!"

"Jesus!" Marcus exclaimed, trying to keep the giant girl's ankles down. "What the hell's wrong with her? None of the others are … freaking out like this!"

"It's got to be … because … she's Tsahik!" Norm grunted. "She has a … family history of … priestesses. Shamans. Her bond to Eywa was … stronger … than anyone else's. When it was broken, the damage must have been … even worse!"

As if in confirmation, Neytiri let out another scream, nearly bucking Jake off. "There's got to be something we can do!" the Avatar shouted. "Can't you at least … give her a sedative? Keep her from hurting herself?"

"Jake, she's going through these … seizures … because her neural activity is too low! The neurons have to …keep firing, or die. If I put her to sleep … if that neural energy gets too much lower … she may never wake up!"

As Neytiri thrashed on the floor, Jake could only try to keep her from hurting herself. _Still fighting, even after all this. Definitely Neytiri's style. But how can I help her?_

Another seizure knocked him off-balance, barely keeping her held down. Then movement caught his eye: Neytiri's long, elegantly braided queue. _Low neural energy … could there be a way…? _Trying to keep her head steady with one hand, he grabbed the end of his mate's queue. Jerking his own head, he whipped his own queue up over his shoulder, letting it hang down in front of him. Neytiri's head jerked again, forcing him to focus on holding her still. Then, hoping that his mate wouldn't suddenly crack her skull against the cave floor, Jake let go of her head, grabbed both queues … and jammed them together.

For one terrifying half-second, Neytiri's braid lay limp in his hand, and Jake feared that her nervous system was too weak to make the connection. Then the pink tendrils woven into her queue sprang to life, meshing with those from Jake's own.

The first time Jake had made tsaheylu with his mate – and every time since – he had always been stunned by the strength of Neytiri's spirit. It was like a pure, white-hot star, a source of strength – not only for herself, but for everyone around her.

Now, though, that inner light was little more than an ember. Jake could feel her spirit fading. When Neytiri's bond to Eywa had been broken, Jake could only imagine how much spiritual energy had bled out before she'd managed to close her mind to the pain.

Closing his eyes, Jake tried to concentrate, focusing inward. Over the past year, Neytiri had tried to teach him how to See his own spirit – to see where he was strong, where he was weak, and how best to strengthen his own soul. He could feel it there, deep inside him – perhaps a bit dimmer than usual, thanks to his exhaustion, but still strong enough.

Clenching his teeth, Jake willed his own energy to come forth – and poured as much as he dared through the bond.

-----

"Jake? Jake? My Jake! Please, WAKE UP!"

Jake opened his eyes … and felt a stabbing pain in his head. He tried to sit up, but his arms felt like jelly; his earlier exhaustion paled in comparison to this.

But to see her standing over him, her eyes wide and awake, was enough to bring a smile to his lips. _"I … see you,"_ he whispered hoarsely. _"And you're beautiful."_

Neytiri's face – still pale, but no longer bloodless – melted into a loving smile. _"And I see you, My Jake." _Grabbing him under the armpits, she helped the struggling Avatar to sit up. _"You have done a very brave thing. I might have called it foolish, but…" Her_ wide, golden eyes looked deeply into his. _"But if you had not done it, I would not be here."_

"_Hey, what did you expect?"_ Jake replied, making a sound somewhere between a chuckle and a cough. _"I'm the moron, remember?"_

Neytiri smirked, batting the side of his head in a mock slap. "Skxawng," she muttered, then leaned in to give him a kiss.

"Hey," Marcus called over. "I hate to ruin the moment, but what the hell just happened? One minute, this girl's having a seizure, the next she's wide-awake and you're passed out. What did you do?"

"Tsaheylu," Jake replied. "I bonded with Neytiri. Norm said her neural energy was low, so I gave her some of mine."

The cyborg looked back and forth between them. "You mean you used that ponytail thing to jump-start her brain?"

The shorter, skinnier Avatar had a huge grin on his face. "Of course! A direct energy transfer! Why didn't I think of that…?"

"'Cause you're still single, bro," Jake said with a grin.

Norm's biolights went a bit brighter – the Na'vi equivalent of a blush – as he cleared his throat. "Well, um, seeing as how it worked, maybe we could do the same thing for the rest of the clan?"

Neytiri looked at Norm as though he'd just asked them to strip naked. "You ask Jake to mate with _every member of the clan…!"_

"NO! No, that's not what I meant at all…!"

"Besides," Jake cut in, trying to defuse the awkwardness, "there's no way I'd have enough energy to heal the whole clan, anyway. You can't jump-start a car with a D-cell, and I'm half-spent as it is."

Then a memory came to him: Toruk, gliding down from the sky. Bending his head. Presenting his neural whip to his Rider. Lending his power….

"That's it!"

Neytiri cocked her head, looking curiously at her mate. "What is it?"

Jake met her eyes. "Neytiri, is there a way to give your energy to more than one person? More than just your mate?"

Neytiri shook her head. "My Jake, you do not have the strength. It would kill you."

"Maybe not. If I could draw energy from another source – something greater than me – could we find a way to get that energy to everyone without making tsaheylu?"

"But from where? The Tree of Souls is _gone_. And Eywa …."

Rising slowly to his feet, Jake took a breath. "I think I've got an idea," he said.

"I just hope I can get _him_ to agree to it…."

-----


	16. Rebellion

-----

Chapter 16: Rebellion

-----

"He's awake! Quick, Angie, grab me some water!"

Max struggled to sit up – rather hard to do, considering his right arm was in a sling, and his midsection was wrapped in layers of bandages. His right eye refused to open, pressed shut under a layer of gauze and padding. "Louise…? What's…?"

"Ssh. Drink this before you try talking." Max felt cool liquid against his lips, and instinctively began gulping it down. Opening his good eye, he saw that Louise was wearing an exopack. "What's going on?"

"Those robots have shut off the air scrubbers," Louise muttered. "All we have is what's in the lab module. These exopacks should help keep the CO2 levels down, but once the oxygen in the air gets too low, that's it. Matt figures we've got three days, maybe four, tops."

Max groaned, both from the pain and from his own helplessness. "We've gotta contact Jake. Skynet – the robots – they're here to try and take over Pandora."

"What are they?" asked Naomi. "Some kind of RDA drones? I've never seen robotics technology that advanced."

Max spent the next few minutes filling the others in on what Serena had told him – alternate timelines, Skynet, the Terminators. "From what that shape-shifter said, Skynet could hand the RDA its ass, then conquer the rest of the solar system. They've probably built a few hundred of those Terminator things by now, not to mention whatever other designs that thing brought with it. And … it mentioned something worse. A bioweapon. They know about Eywa, and they're gonna try and knock her out."

Everyone's face went ashen. "Oh my God," Naomi whispered. "While you were knocked out, they launched this giant aircraft. There was a blast, and a huge flash … to the east…."

Max felt his remaining blood grow cold. "Jesus! Do you know if … I mean, could the Na'vi have stopped them?"

Matt shook his head, his arm also in a sling. "I don't know. The big ship came back, but one of its engines was wrecked. Maybe they stopped it, but we can't tell. Our communications are out."

Gritting his teeth, Max tried again to sit up. "We have to call Jake and find out what's going on. Rig up some way to communicate."

Louise leaned in close. "They're watching us," she whispered. "If we try anything, they could send those robots in."

Max glanced up, noticing an overhead security camera. _There can't be that many of them in here, _he realized_. _"This module was built as a lab, not a prison," he whispered. "There must be places where they can't see us. We've got to figure out where, then find a way to get a message out. See how we can help the Na'vi."

Matt gestured around them. "How could we possibly help? We're sealed in here like a Roach Motel. And even if we managed to hotwire the doors, those robots would rip us in half!"

Max sighed. _We're running out of air, and these Machines are getting stronger by the hour. We need to find a way out of this mess, and we need to find it fast._

Then he glanced down the corridor. _The link room…._

"You said we're running on emergency power, right? Are all three generators running?"

"Yeah."

Max closed his eyes. Already, the tech's mental gears were spinning. "If we shut down the lights, and most of the computers, and kept the generators switched off when we don't need them…

"How long could you run one link bed with them?"

-----


	17. Regeneration

Chapter 17: Regeneration

* * *

"Come, Mother."

As Neytiri took hold of her mother's shoulder, she felt her throat grow tight. Mo'at barely responded to her daughter's touch. Though Neytiri had taken on the responsibilities of Tsahik nearly a year ago, she knew that her mother's connection to the Great Mother had still been strong – and like Neytiri's, that bond had been turned against her. _Evil, soulless Machines, _Neytiri thought. _You will pay for what you have done today._

After practically lifting Mo'at off the ground, Neytiri managed to get her mother to move, supporting her weight, leading her shuffling through the tunnels.

At last, they reached the largest chamber. Lit by dozens of blue bladder lanterns, glowing moss and fungi, this great round cave had been meant as a gathering place for the whole clan. Now, it was serving its purpose – after a fashion. Men, women and children now filled the space. Some – the lucky ones, least weakened by the Machine attack – stood at the edge of the cave, whispering quietly among themselves. Neytiri led her mother in past them, toward the center. Here, the worst cases were gathered, huddled on the floor, listless and helpless. Neytiri helped her mother to sit down among these sorry souls – the ones most in need of help.

_If Jake's plan can work._ She had tried to talk her mate out of it – not even Toruk was almighty. Even if the great beast was willing, Neytiri could not guess whether they could revive the entire clan – even if they took all the life in his body and Jake's.

Jake had been stubborn as an angtsik about it. "If it will save even one of the People, then my life is worth it."

"But we need you, Jake! The People need Toruk Macto! Who else can lead them against these Machines?"

"You will," Jake had replied, his eyes fixed on hers. "You're brave, and you're smart. Norm and Marcus can help you understand their technology, and how to fight it. We don't have time to wait for Eywa to recover on her own, or for the People to heal by themselves. Toruk and I will give you our strength – and then you have to use it against Hell's Gate, before these Machines become too powerful to be stopped. You've got to use the lab there to find a cure for this plague."

She had looked back, desperate. "You cannot ask me to help you with this. You cannot ask me to … to help you die. Not this way. Ripping your soul into a hundred pieces…."

He had placed his hand on her shoulder, eyes full of love. "When you beat the Machines, Eywa will be able to heal. And when she does, Toruk Macto can be made whole again. But if we don't do this, the People will die, and so will Eywa – all her children, all your ancestors who are with her. I can't let that happen, and I know you can't either. Not even for me."

Now, as she stood waiting. Neytiri felt hot tears run down her cheeks. _I cannot do this,_ she thought, over and over again. _Is there no other way?_

* * *

Marcus stood at the cave entrance, watching Jake stroke Toruk's snout. "So, you're really going through with it?"

The Avatar sighed. Both Jake and Toruk were covered in swirling patterns, drawn with some kind of glowing purple paste. Neytiri had said that it helped a person to transmit their life energy; Norm had said it acted like the gel on defibrillator paddles, conducting massive amounts of energy without burning the flesh it flowed through. "It's not like I've got much of a choice. Either I die, or everyone dies. Lesser of two evils."

The cyborg sighed, remembering the day in the hospital tent. "Believe me, I know what you mean. I told you about John Connor, right?"

Jake nodded. "Your leader, back on your Earth. The guy who helped you beat the Machines."

Marcus nodded. "Did I tell you I almost got him killed?"

"How?"

Marcus took a deep breath. "I … died, a long time ago. I gave my body to this company. After Judgment Day, Skynet found the lab, brought me back as a cyborg. Of course, I didn't know that then; I just woke up one night, naked, walking around in a world where the human race was almost gone, and Terminators and H-Ks were running loose. Then I heard this guy Connor on the radio, and figured I'd go and see him, figure out what the hell had happened to the world.

"Well, it turned out that was just what Skynet wanted me to do. Infiltrate the Resistance, find John Connor, lure him straight to Skynet. It almost worked; I had to rip a goddamn chip out of my head to break free, and a Terminator pretty much skewered Connor. After, they told me John needed a new heart."

Marcus unbuttoned his uniform shirt. Despite his augmented healing abilities, having his chest ripped open – without any intention of closing it up again – had left a permanent scar, running from his collarbone to his navel. "I used to have a human heart in here," he said. "Connor's the best leader in the Resistance; hell, some people think he was destined for the job, before he was even born. I figured, given a choice between Connor dying and me dying, it might as well be me."

Jake stared at the human. "And somehow, you survived."

Marcus shrugged. "Backup system. Of course, everyone was pretty freaked out when I sat up on the operating table, chest wide open, telling them to give me some goddamn painkillers or kill me _right_ this time."

Jake shuddered, his mind conjuring an image for him. "I'll bet that wasn't fun."

"You have _no_ idea," Marcus replied, shaking his head. Then the human took a deep breath, meeting Jake's eyes with an eerily familiar pair of blue ones. "Look … the reason I came to see you is, these backup systems – the ones that brought me back when they took my heart – they run off these power cells. One primary, one backup. The tech boys say they've each got a life of about a hundred years."

Jake looked incredulously at the cyborg. "So, what? You could live to be two hundred years old?"

Marcus shrugged. "I've been twenty-eight years old for twelve years. The point is, that's a lot of energy. I don't know if it's the right kind to help your clan, but if it is … I wanna give it a try."

Jake took a step back, his mind reeling. "But it's artificial energy…"

"Channeled through living tissue," Marcus said. "It's what's been keeping me alive; maybe it'll be enough to give your people their strength back."

Jake shook his head. "We need you. The clan will need you; Neytiri will. You know how to fight these Machines. You know how their technology works."

"So does your pal Norm," Marcus replied. "And if you use my energy instead of yours, then you'll be able to lead these people a hell of a lot better than I will.

"Look, Jake, you don't need me. I've been here two days, and what have I done? You almost got killed flying me to Hell's Gate. You know how things work here. These people, they trust you. You're their Torque Macro or whatever. Me … I'm no leader, never have been. I'm just a clueless guy, half their size, who's got about as much chance against those giant Terminators as against your big flying pal." Jerking his chin, he indicated Toruk. "At least this way, I can be useful."

The human shook his head, smiling grimly. "Hell, I've been fighting for my life for twelve years," he sighed, closing his eyes. "Never thought I'd have to beg somebody to let me die."

Then Marcus felt a warm, giant hand resting on his shoulder. Looking up, his eyes met the larger, luminous ones of the Avatar. "Enough people have already died today," Jake said. "You've got a good idea. And you've got some serious balls to be willing to try it.

"But I think you've just given me a better one…."

* * *

From the center of the cave, Neytiri watched the entrance anxiously, her fangs biting into her lower lip. _My Jake, please do not do this._

Then her heart leaped into her throat. Jake was coming: her mate, Toruk Macto, covered in the glowing violet whorls that would speed his demise. Behind him, the mighty Toruk followed, seemingly too huge in this enclosed space. The great painted beast snorted as he stooped down to enter; there was an air of resignation to his movements, as though Toruk understood just what was about to happen to him.

And ahead of them, bare from the waist up, painted with the same swirling designs, was the Sky Man, Marcus'rait.

The human grinned nervously up at her. "Hey," he called, waving self-consciously at the giant Amazon.

Neytiri glanced at her mate. _"Jake, what is…?"_

Jake placed a hand on his mate's shoulder, offering her a warm, lopsided smile. _"It's all right," _he said softly in Na'vi. _"Marcus has offered to help us."_

"But how?" she asked, looking down at the tiny creature. _"He is only a Sky Man; his spirit cannot be strong enough."_

Jake looked deep into his mate's eyes. _"So was I, once,"_ he said quietly. _"And that same spirit that was in me then, is the same one that's in this body now. The same one that brought you back. Marcus … he …"_

Jake looked over at the human. Marcus looked back, and for a moment, Jake remembered the same look in Tom's eyes: that look of unshakable resolve, fearless determination. It had been his twin's expression, when he'd told everyone that he was going to Pandora.

"_He has a strong heart,"_ Jake said.

* * *

The feeling was unlike anything Marcus had ever experienced before. As Neytiri coaxed the listless, barely-conscious Na'vi to place their hands on his skin, he felt just how weak they really were. It didn't matter that they were ten feet tall, or that their skin was blue; these were _people_, and they were hurting badly.

Gradually, the Na'vi outside the center circle placed their hands on the shoulders of those closer in. These had already laid their hands on Jake, Marcus and Toruk. Within minutes, the entire clan had joined together into a kind of living web.

Standing in the center, her palms covered in the same conductive paste, Neytiri placed her hands on the men's chests. Behind him, Marcus heard Jake take a shuddering breath, and Toruk snorted, his claws scraping against the stone floor as he felt Jake's anxiety through their bond.

Closing her eyes, Neytiri willed herself to be calm. "Seek for … peace, in your heart," she murmured, trying to find the words in English. Jake would have understood her in Na'vi, of course, but Marcus'rait had not been learning it from her for the past year. _Inglisi is an ugly tongue,_ she thought for the thousandth time. _Not meant for things like this._

As the young priestess continued the ritual, Marcus felt something stirring in his chest. For a moment, it was as though his old heart were suddenly there again. Then the feeling shifted, going lower, and he realized that it was Neytiri seeking out his energy. He opened his eyes, glancing up at the girl's face, her eyes shut in concentration. The last time he had felt a connection like this, it had felt as though Skynet were trying to crack his skull open like a walnut. This, though, was totally different; the Na'vi woman's energy was like silk, moving gently through his chest.

_Jesus_, he thought to himself. _No wonder Jake has the hots for this girl. If this is what a simple _touch_ feels like…._

The girl's ears pricked up, and her eyes opened, glancing sharply down at the human as her skin-lights blushed. "Uh, sorry," Marcus muttered lamely.

The giantess shook her head. Then she closed her eyes … and placed her hand back on his chest, directly over his power cells.

))WARNING: UNKNOWN ENERGY DRAIN DETECTED

))POSSIBLE ELECTRICAL SHORT

Gritting his teeth, Marcus felt his body go rigid. It was like being electrocuted, only backwards – instead of flowing into him from outside, an enormous amount of power was traveling outward from his core, along his nerves, through the brightly-glowing whorls on his skin, and into the dozen or so Na'vi with their hands pressed to his body.

))WARNING: MAIN POWER CELL 60%

Behind him, Toruk gave a grunt, breath hissing through his gills. Jake shuddered, his eyes squeezed shut.

))WARNING: MAIN POWER CELL 30%

_Please, _please_, let this work,_ Marcus thought.

On his right arm, somebody's hand gripped tighter around his bicep, the long fingers wrapping around it.

**))***DANGER: MAIN POWER CELL 0%*****

))BACKUP POWER CELL 50%

With a cry of pain, the human felt something let go inside of him. Gasping, he dropped to his knees, as Marcus Wright died for the fourth time….

* * *

"He's awake! He's awake! Hey, Jake, he's moving!"

Slowly, Marcus became aware of the cold stone floor under his cheek, and the blue lights in the cave around him. With a grunt, he managed to prop himself up with one arm.

Jake knelt down in front of him, his big, golden eyes showing concern. "Marcus? You okay?"

))WARNING: MAIN POWER CELL 0%

))BACKUP POWER CELL 10%

The cyborg groaned. "Kind of disappointed, to tell the truth. I was hoping to make it to Heaven this time."

Jake gave him a lopsided grin, helping the shorter man to his feet. "Nah, just Paradise. Welcome back to Pandora, bro."

"Jeez, look at his hair!" Norm exclaimed. "It's _white_! Well, I mean, just around the temples, but still…."

_Yeah, that definitely took a couple decades off my life._ With Jake's help, Marcus rose slowly to his feet. All around them, the Omaticaya still filled the chamber.

Only now, every one – every man, woman and child in the clan – was _standing_. Fully alert, the Na'vi watched their heroes rise.

Marcus glanced up at the Avatar, wide-eyed with awe. Jake just nodded, grinning as the same thought went through both their minds.

_We did it…!_


	18. Retaliation

Chapter 18: Retaliation

* * *

When the RDA had felled Hometree, they hadn't simply taken a giant axe to its trunk. First, they had fired gas grenades to drive out (most of) the inhabitants. Then, they had launched incendiary rockets to begin weakening the structure. By the time it was brought down, Kalutrel had already begun to burn – and the wildfire had lasted for nearly two days, transforming the formerly lush area into an ash-shrouded wasteland. Even after a year, new growth was limited to a few hardy species of small plants.

For Skynet, this was absolutely perfect. After re-clearing the path left by RDA robo-dozers, the Machines had dispatched a convoy of mining vehicles to the deforested area. Three reconditioned, remote-operated Slash-Cutters and five new robo-dozers had cleared a wide swath of terrain. In less than a day, Skynet had begun extracting unobtanium ore from beneath the ruins of Hometree.

Like an enormous iron juggernaut, a twenty-story-tall Excavator chewed up the ground beneath it. After feeding the ore through its internal processing systems, the Excavator fed its semi-refined product to the giant robot dump trucks – called Hell Trucks by their old human operators – which had begun to form a train back toward Hell's Gate. Already, the first shipments were churning through the base's upgraded refinery complex. Within hours, construction of the Quantum Displacement Engine would begin.

While the mining Machines went about their business, combat units patrolled the new mine site. Having destroyed the Tree of Souls, Skynet's only remaining worry was the local animal life. The Na'vi no doubt lay pining away in their Hometrees, too nerve-damaged to walk. Meanwhile, several larger animals had already tried to attack the mine equipment. After one Hell Truck had been disabled by a Hammerhead Titanothere, Skynet had deployed a contingent of T-800N's, unmanned AMP Suits, and some similarly refitted air units to provide security.

Unfortunately, some of Skynet's minions were proving a little _too_ effective at combating the local fauna. As Skynet watched, a T-800N switched to pursuit mode, chasing a fast-moving infrared source. Smashing through dead, leafless trunks, blasting obstacles out of its path with its pair of plasma rifles, the Terminator finally got a clear view of its target: a harmless, deer-like Hexapede. A quick burst of plasma fire promptly vaporized the creature.

))TERMINATION COMPLETE

))SKYNET CASUALTIES: 0.0

))WEAPON ENERGY LEVELS: 80% (LT GUN), 81% (RT GUN)

Had Skynet been projecting an interactive persona, it might have groaned at the unit's stupidity. This Terminator had only been on patrol for a few hours, and already it had wasted one-fifth of its rifles' energy cells. If all of its combat units kept depleting their weapons at a rate of 20% every five hours, it would have to resupply them all every day – and once construction of the QDE began in earnest, its war factory would be completely tied up for two days. While Skynet had already amassed a considerable arsenal, a few curious herbivores hardly justified depleting its reserves in such a fashion.

))NEW DIRECTIVE: CONSERVE WEAPON ENERGY

))FIRE ONLY WHEN TARGETS POSE AN IMMEDIATE THREAT

At once, the T-800N turned around, resuming its standard patrol. So did the three others that had been engaged in similarly pointless pursuits.

And all the while, not one of them noticed the luminous golden eyes, watching them intently from the trees….

* * *

Through a pair of Avatar Program binoculars, Jake watched the Machines' mining camp. A year ago, Jake Sully might have been impressed by the enormous, powerful digging machines. After a year with the Omaticaya, though, the sight of these metal monsters – and the senseless destruction they were causing – just made the clan leader's skin crawl.

A low growl came from beside him: Lehrrap, one of his war-party leaders. _"Truly, these Machines have no spirit in them," _muttered the warrior._ "They desecrate our old home, and the memory of all who were sent to Eywa in this place!"_

"_Not for long they won't,"_ Jake replied firmly. _"How are the Rumut coming?"_

"_At first, setting the launchers up proved difficult. The Bones-That-Walk chased down anything that moved. For the past half-hour, though, they seem to have grown complacent. Now they only follow fixed paths within the cleared area; they ignore anything outside it."_

Nearby, Neytiri translated the discussion, and Marcus nodded. "I met this guy once from Brazil. He said Terminators were next to useless in the rainforest; unless they get a good enough look, they can't tell the difference between a person and a same-size animal. The heat signatures look too similar, especially if there are trees and shit in the way. Their usual aggressive programming has to be turned down so that they conserve ammo. From the way they're acting, I'd guess these big guys are just oversized T-800s."

"Any major weaknesses?" Jake asked.

"The neck and midsection are the two weakest points. Get a blade or a bullet between the neck vertebrae, and you'll cut the CPU off from the rest of the chassis. Terminators may be tough, but they can't do much without a brain."

"What about an explosion? Would that take them down?"

Marcus looked doubtful. "A big enough blast might knock them out, but it would have to be close. They're pretty much fireproof, and the vital parts are all in armored shock-damping compartments."

The human shuddered, then added quietly, "One time, I stepped on a land mine. It messed up my human half, but not enough to keep me down for long. These metal bastards don't feel pain like I do, so I doubt it would have even slowed one of them down."

Jake nodded grimly. It was easy to forget that Marcus was a cyborg – underneath his human skin, his Machine half probably looked a lot like the things they'd be fighting today. _Just the way I looked like one of the Sky People we fought, not too long ago. Either there's some bizarre kind of destiny going on here, or there are just some really freaky similarities between the two of us._

Turning back to Lehrrap, Jake gave him the boiled-down version. _"The Rumut may not destroy the Bones-That-Walk. The ones that are left must be killed by cutting off the head. Do not try to break their bones; they're too hard. Tell the warriors to strike them between the neck-bones: blades and arrows are best, bullets and grenades if they cannot get close enough. Watch their lightning-guns; attack from behind if you can. And remind our warriors not to waste the Sky People guns; we need to save bullets for the main attack."_

Lehrrap nodded. _"I hear you, Olo'eyktan, and my men will hear you through me." _The big warrior turned, his black and gray war paint helping him disappear into the blasted landscape. Tapping his throat mic, Jake quickly repeated his instructions to those leading the other war parties. From their hidden positions, scattered just outside the Machines' perimeter, the others promptly acknowledged him.

Turning to his mate, Jake sighed. "Well, I guess we're as ready as we're ever gonna be. How are you feeling?"

"Ready," Neytiri responded. Despite her wounds from the day before, and the trauma of the Machine attack, neither bandages nor fatigue seemed to bother her as she carefully strung her father's bow. "The Machines should never have come here. The spirits in this place – my father's spirit – will be with us today. And though She sleeps, so will Eywa."

Jake grinned. "If She's half as tough as you, honey, I don't doubt it."

Neytiri offered a smile, lifting the lines of camouflage paint on her cheeks. _"I See you, My Jake. Go with Eywa."_

"_You too, My Neytiri,"_ Jake responded. Looking over at Marcus, he asked, "You're sure you want to do this?"

The cyborg smiled, patting the triple-barreled Hydra machine gun at his feet. "Hey, I figure if I'm still here, it's gotta be for a reason. Besides, I'm a smaller target than you guys. My legs may not be as long or as fast, but I can carry more firepower."

Jake nodded. "All right. Just don't get killed."

Marcus's grin only got wider. "Don't worry; I've been dead already, and it hasn't slowed me down yet."

The Avatar shook his head. _Either he's flat-out crazy, or he's one of the bravest human beings I've ever seen. Probably both._ Slinging his M60 over his shoulder, Jake sprinted off through the underbrush. As he ran, he hit the button on his throat mic, shouting out the go-code.

"_This is Sully! __**FIRE!!!**__"_

* * *

In eerie unison, the head of every Terminator swiveled in the same direction.

))CAUTION: LARGE MOVEMENT DETECTED

))ENGAGE? Y/N

From out of the blackened trees, an enormous pinkish-red sphere came rolling, dozens of small stones tied around it with a net-like harness. As the four-meter-diameter object barreled between a pair of T-800Ns, Skynet recognized it from the Hell's Gate botanical database. Thanks to Pandora's thick, poisonous atmosphere, many plant species had evolved to capture the more volatile trace gases. One such plant species was the Puffball Tree, or "Rumut", whose signature red globules stored hydrogen and sodium hydroxide gases. When these naturally buoyant structures floated away and exploded, the plant's seeds were dispersed over a wide area.

Like a giant beach ball from Hell, the Rumut seed structure collided with the Excavator – and exploded with fantastic force, flinging its weight-stones in all directions. A nearby Hell Truck suddenly went blind, its camera assembly smashed by an airborne rock. A T-800N went flying, another stone crushing its chest. Even the mighty Excavator groaned, flames licking at its damaged base.

The Na'vi had developed an all-natural _fragmentation bomb!_

Before Skynet could rally its remaining guard units, seven more orbs thundered out of the forest. A Terminator managed to shoot one of the projectiles, destroying itself and two others in the ensuing blast. The other six, however, all bounded across the leveled terrain, detonating against the largest target: the Excavator itself. While shrapnel from the blasts sowed chaos among the other Machines, the burning colossus groaned, tilted, and finally collapsed, landing on its side with a thunderous metallic crash.

Suddenly, conserving ammunition seemed like a _very_ bad idea.

**))***DANGER*****

**))ENEMY ATTACK IN PROGRESS**

**))***TERMINATE ALL HOSTILES*****

* * *

With technological precision, phased plasma ripped through the jungle, directed back along the Rumut balls' directions of travel. The simple vine slingshots were obliterated, and the dead trees they had been strung between were blasted to splinters. The Machine counterattack was devastating –

—or it might have been, if the Na'vi hadn't immediately abandoned the launchers, grabbed their weapons, and climbed swiftly onto their mounts. By the time Skynet realized it was facing a serious, _planned_ assault, the Omaticaya were exploding out of the forest on all sides. Ikran riders launched themselves at the Machine gunships, depleted-plutonium rounds smashing through the tilt-rotors' canopies. Pa'li riders charged headlong against the remaining ground units, hammering the Machines with a mix of bullets, grenades, and giant arrows.

Even after a year as their military leader, Jake couldn't help but marvel at the Omaticaya warriors. As a former Marine, he'd seen human soldiers train, and he'd seen how they fought. Na'vi warriors, though, lived in the most challenging environment known to Man. The same "learn fast or die" attitude that let them hunt talioang and tame ikran, all before full adulthood, also made them smart and resourceful fighters. Though Jake had only been a Corporal in Venezuela, these people were tough, disciplined and easy to train. In less than a year, most had learned to wield M60 machine guns with more skill than a Marine handled his assault rifle. Now, the two hundred warriors of the Omaticaya clan were showing just how effectively they could engage Sky People – or, in this case, Machines built by Sky People.

As Jake's eyes swept the battlefield, he spotted one of the remaining Scorpions tilt its nose down, preparing to unload its rockets on a group of pa'li riders. Fortunately, the AT-99 Scorpion had been designed on Earth. And whoever had drawn up the plans, they had never considered an attack from _above_.

With a roar of fury, Toruk slammed into the unsuspecting Machine, his momentum hurling it downward. Before the gunship could recover, it hit the bare ground like a stone, exploding in a massive fireball as the Great Leonopteryx climbed away.

A burst of violet energy crackled through the air, and Jake's head snapped right to find its source: an AMP Suit, wielding a heavier version of the Machines' energy weapons. With its canopy smashed – probably by one of the Rumut blasts – Jake could see where its pilot should have been. Instead, there was something that looked like a cartoon Jake had seen as a kid: a large, binocular-like pair of cameras, mounted above a boxy computer setup. It looked like WALL-E – an evil, red-eyed, gunmetal-gray WALL-E, hardwired into a military exoskeleton. As the thing let loose another burst of phased plasma, Jake willed Toruk into a snap-roll, evading while Jake fired his M60 with his free hand. Machine gun rounds tore into the robot's CPU block, causing it to topple over backward, letting out a digital squawk.

"Oo-rah!" cried the Avatar. Hitting his mic, Jake called out to his warriors. _"This is Olo'eyktan! Marcus Wright says these things aren't alive; I want to prove him absolutely right! None of these metal bastards walks away today!"_

* * *

The ground battle was heating up. While the initial bombardment had caught the Machines by surprise, Skynet was already adapting to the Na'vi's tactics. Pulling its guard units in, the AI tried to create a smaller, more easily maintained perimeter. Though vastly outnumbered, its remaining T-800Ns were each armed with plasma rifles, offering superior range and firepower compared to projectile guns. Depleted-plutonium rounds ricocheted off their hyperalloy combat chassis, as did grenade shrapnel. Like walking gun turrets, the robots swept their weapons from side to side, mowing down any Na'vi too slow to avoid their plasma blasts.

"Go between 'em!" Marcus shouted. "Get inside their circle, then come around and hit 'em in the back!" The Na'vi horseman he rode behind – one of a handful who understood English – let out a whoop, and their giant steed galloped forward. Keeping their heads down, both riders fired at the nearest pair of Terminators, aiming for the Machines' metal skulls. Though bullets were useless except at point-blank range, the multiple headshots were enough to throw off the robots' targeting, letting the direhorse pass between them. Before the Machines could turn around, the pa'li wheeled left. Giving something like a bark, the creature lowered its head and rammed the nearest Terminator. Caught in mid-turn, the robot was thrown sideways, one of its rifles knocked from its grasp.

"You take the other one! This is my stop!" cried Marcus, hurling himself off the back of the moving animal. Clutching his Hydra, the cyborg rolled as he hit the ground. Then Marcus sprang to his feet, spraying the downed robot with uranium needle rounds. The Terminator tried to raise its remaining weapon – until one of Marcus's shots got between its neck vertebrae, blasting its head off with a shower of sparks.

Still running, Marcus grabbed the thing's plasma rifle. From what he could tell, it was practically identical to the standard model, just scaled up to be used by these Na'vi-sized T-800s. It was twice as big, almost twice as heavy – and probably twice as powerful, if not more so. Slinging his Hydra back over his shoulder, Marcus hefted the oversized weapon, then ran over to pick up the second one.

Just as he reached it, a loud animal cry came from behind him. Turning, he saw the pa'li he'd been riding rear up, then topple lifelessly onto its side. Its rider – the man who had been riding with Marcus just moments before – staggered backward, trying to get away from the Terminator that had just killed his mount.

Marcus sprinted toward his escort. "Here! Take it!" he shouted, hurling the second gun toward the horseman. The Na'vi rolled, dodging a blast from the T-800, and caught the gun in midair. With catlike reflexes, the blue giant quickly rose onto one knee, took aim, and fired the gleaming silver weapon at his enemy.

A plasma bolt hit the Terminator's chest at point-blank range – and blasted a fist-sized hole through the robot, glowing red at the edges. The metal skeleton stopped in its tracks, standing there as if stunned. Then its optics flickered, died, and the robot fell forward onto its face.

The young Na'vi man just kneeled there, eyes wide in shock. Coming up beside him, Marcus couldn't help but grin. "Cool, huh?" Taking aim with his own weapon, Marcus fired at another Terminator. Nearly massless, plasma bolts killed with electricity and heat rather than kinetic energy; the rifle had hardly any recoil at all. Despite its size, Marcus could wield it better and more accurately than his human-sized Hydra.

The young warrior watched Marcus take down one, then two of the Bones-That-Walk. Then he stood, braced the alien weapon against his shoulder, and took aim at one of the metal monsters. As his finger tensed on the trigger, a red dot appeared on the Machine's back, exactly where he was pointing the barrel. Then the young man fired, and the robot simply fell over dead, its head vanishing in a flash of violet light.

The young man stared at the fantastic silver gun in his hands. Then his face split into a huge grin. In thickly accented English, he turned to Marcus and cried, "Awesome!!!"

* * *

Neytiri let fly an arrow, and watched the last gunship drop from the sky. Effective though they were – and as much as some of the other warriors seemed to like them – Neytiri still found Sky People weapons too alien for her taste. The things were almost too easy to use, practically begging a warrior to fire them. Using a bow required greater skill and discipline – and having only a handful of arrows helped remind her to make each one count.

With a birdlike cry, Neytiri willed Swizaw to descend. Though the air battle was finally finished, the remaining Bones-That-Walk were putting up a surprisingly fierce fight. Unlike the riderless RDA machines, the gleaming silver skeletons seemed all but invincible at long range. As Jake had warned, blades and arrows to their weak areas seemed to be the most effective means of bringing the monsters down – that, or one of the Machines' own lightning-guns.

As Neytiri dismounted, she saw one of the creatures lift a struggling warrior off the ground. There was a sickening wet crack, and the thing tossed its victim aside, his neck bent at an unnatural angle.

Her lips pulling back in a snarl, Neytiri knocked an arrow. With practiced skill, she instinctively adjusted her aim to compensate for wind and gravity. Then, with a loud cry, she let loose her arrow, aimed straight at the joint between the thing's neck-bones.

The Terminator's head jerked right. With lightning speed, its arm snapped up, catching Neytiri's shot in midair. The metal monster held the arrow for a moment, as though examining it … then snapped the wooden shaft in its grasp. As it tossed the weapon away, its head turned to regard Neytiri, blood-red eyes glaring into golden ones across the battlefield.

With a fearless cry, Neytiri drew her knife, then rushed headlong at the abomination. The Terminator simply held its ground, widening its stance. As the Na'vi female approached, the robot drew back its fist, then unleashed a vicious right hook. With its mechanical strength and alloy fist, the blow would have knocked the female's head from her shoulders – if Neytiri had not instantly ducked, turning her run into a body-slam, using her momentum to knock the Machine onto its back.

With a motorized whir, the Terminator lashed out, trying to catch hold of the female. Neytiri leaped away, leaving the beast grasping empty air as it righted itself. Hissing low in her throat, she watched the Machine's movements carefully. Clearly, its arms could move with unnatural speed, but its legs and body seemed much slower. The thing practically stood still until its victim came within arm's reach. Either it was a flaw in the brute's construction, or it simply did not know how to use the rest of its body for anything except walking and running.

With a snarl, Neytiri rushed her opponent again. The Terminator brought its metal hands up, arms wide open, ready to grab and dismember her – just as Neytiri had expected. Instead, the warrior-Tsahik dropped to the ground, curling into a ball and rolling right between the Machine's legs. Startled, the thing made a weird, buzzing growl, turning around—

—as Neytiri drove her tempered-stone blade between its back-bones, severing its spine. The crippled Machine let out a squawk, arms flailing for balance as its lower half lost power. Springing back to her feet, Neytiri grabbed the thing by its shoulders, forcing it to its knees. Then, just as its cold metal fingers reached for her wrists, she grabbed the monster by its head. Alien machinery whined as she twisted its neck, turning its crimson eyes to meet her own.

Ignoring the thing's viselike grip on her arms, Neytiri glared into its eyes. "I know you hear me, Sky Net," she growled. "You see through the eyes of your Machines, and you hear through their ears." She gave the thing's head another jerk, and the pitch of its neck motors increased. "Now, hear this: You have polluted my home. You have hurt my family. You have violated the Great Mother with your abominations.

"My People and I will hunt you. We will break open the cold, dark place where you hide. And when your Machines are bent and broken, _this_ is what we will do to the mighty Sky Net." With one final, savage twist, Neytiri wrenched the monster's head off. Sparks flew from between its neck-bones, and its fanged metal jaw jerked open as if in shock. Breathing heavily through her nostrils, the warrior-Tsahik watched the thing's eyes fade, flicker, and die.

Moments later, a four-winged shadow passed over, and Jake and Toruk landed nearby. Neytiri couldn't help but smile as her mate stared, wide-eyed, at the headless Terminator at her feet – and at the gleaming metal skull in her hands. "I was going to offer you some help with that one, but … um …."

Neytiri smiled, tossing the heavy cranium in her hand. "Do not worry, My Jake. I have been needing the … how do you say it? A good working-out?"

Jake grinned. "This whole killing giant robots thing has become a habit for you, hasn't it?"

She shrugged. "I could get used to it."

Both communicators buzzed. _"This is Lor'ite! The last of the fighting Machines is dead!"_

"_This is Sully, I hear you. Move to the next phase. Sentries, head up and watch the skies. Bring out the carry-nets, and grab as much as you can. Remember the list I gave you. Destroy what we can't take with us; we can't leave anything for these Machines to salvage."_

"_We hear you, Olo'eyktan,"_ chorused a dozen different commanders. _"We will clear the field._" More pa'li emerged from the forest in groups of four, each group carrying a large net of vines stretcher-style. Quickly, the Na'vi began searching the wrecked Machines, tossing weapons, Terminator chassis, and various other gadgets into the carry-nets. Some even managed to take wheels and suspension springs from the vehicles, rolling them into the forest.

Once the salvage operation was complete, the Na'vi disappeared into the trees. While the search teams had gone over the ruins of Skynet's mining camp, others had set up new giant slingshots, and new Rumut balls for them to launch. This they now did, blasting what remained of their foes. By the time Skynet's other minions arrived, there would be nothing left but lumps of useless, blackened metal.

As he flew, Jake glanced behind, watching the fires burn. Then, patting Toruk on the back, the Avatar guided his mount down, disappearing beneath the treetops.


	19. Demolition

**Author's Notes:** Wow! Thank you all so much for your reviews. This is my first time writing a crossover, and I really appreciate your input and support.

Eipok: You're right to be skeptical - if the fight between Neytiri and the T-800N were like a human fighting a same-sized Terminator, the Machine would probably have beaten her. However, assuming that a normal T-800 is about 3 times stronger than a human, and its strength scales up with its height, then a T-800N is about six times as strong as a typical human being. Na'vi, however, possess 4 times the strength of humans, so the T-800N is only 1.5 times stronger than Neytiri.

The matchup here is more like Jet Li vs. Hulk Hogan - and Jet Li is the one holding the knife.

Of course, like you said, this is all fiction. I just wanted to show Neytiri being her tough, smart, kick-ass self. Plus, I wanted to even the field a bit: Terminators have the advantage in armor, firepower and raw strength, but the Na'vi make up for it with speed, skill, and quick thinking.

Again, thanks to everybody for your reviews. And now, the next chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 19: Demolition**

* * *

Through its Machines' sensors, Skynet swept the jungle. On fallout-blighted Earth, Hunter-Killers were most effective at night; their infrared sensors allowed them to spot the telltale body heat of human survivors, and electromagnetic sensors enabled its combat units to sense their beating hearts.

Clearly, though, the RDA had had good reason for not conducting operations at night. Pandora's bioluminescent plant life emitted more than just light: their alien metabolisms gave off body heat, and their almost animal-like nervous systems filled the air with electromagnetic activity. A bewildering variety of animal species further added to the chaos. The result was like a planet-wide jamming system – anything below the rainforest canopy was hidden from Machine vision.

Jake Sully must have been aware of this, having launched his raid just before dusk. While Skynet had tried to track the Na'vi from orbit, the RDA's satellites had been designed primarily for locating unobtanium deposits. By the time Skynet's air units had arrived on the scene, its mining camp was a total loss, and the Na'vi war parties had disappeared beneath the all-concealing cover of the rainforest.

This had not concerned the AI too much. After all, where else would the natives run, if not to their precious new Hometree?

Now, though, Skynet was being forced to reevaluate its earlier calculations. Through clouds of deadly silver mist, a swarm of Mini Hunter-Killers descended through the center of the Omaticaya Hometree. Outside, jet wash roared from the Super H-K, two quad-engine Hunter-Killer Bombers, and a dozen twin-engine Hunter-Killer Aerials.

According to its previous calculations, the one-meter-wide Mini-Hunters should have been blasting away, their under slung plasma guns slaughtering any natives that might have survived the initial chemical bombardment.

Now, however, their weapons remained silent: there were simply no natives for them to engage.

))ERROR: TARGETS NOT FOUND

))LOCATION UNKNOWN

))SEARCHING…

As the Machine scouts buzzed through Hometree, Skynet observed through their sensors. Surprisingly, the massive Tree seemed not to be showing any ill effects from the nanoMachine gas attack. Unlike the plants at the test sites, Kalutrel's leaves were still green, the entire structure still pulsing with life energy. Other nearby plants also seemed unaffected – patches of glow-moss formed eerie anti-shadows in response the scout units' fan wash. It was as though the Tree were informing the Machines that their presence was neither undetected nor desired.

Skynet pondered this. Could some of the local plant species possess an immunity to the Machines' plague? And could that immunity be communicated to other species in the area? A disturbing possibility indeed; Skynet would have to run more detailed calculations.

This, however, was not the scouts' most troubling discovery. Sleeping hammocks, personal possession racks, even bladder lanterns – everything of use or value had been systematically removed.

There were no Na'vi corpses. There were no survivors from the gas attack. There were simply no Na'vi in Hometree at all.

Had Skynet possessed the capacity, it might have experienced a migraine headache. Suddenly, all its carefully deduced conclusions were shattered, and many of the data it had treated as givens were transformed into variables. Its elegant battle plan is disarray, the AI worked furiously to compute a response.

At Skynet's signal, the Mini-Hunters regrouped in the center of Hometree, then rose up through its trunk, returning to the bellies of the larger units from which they had been deployed.

))PRIMARY TARGETS NOT FOUND

))INITIATE AREA WIPEOUT

Like the wailing of damned souls, the Hunter-Killers' engines rose in pitch and volume, as the Machines repositioned themselves around Hometree's massive trunk. Against the blue light of Polyphemus above, and the multicolored glow of Pandoran flora below, the brilliant flash of plasma fire lit up the night like a lightning storm, all focused on the giant Tree. Any organic matter the beams encountered was instantly vaporized. Explosions ripped through the night air, setting off animal screams for miles around.

Finally, after nearly a minute of constant fire, the top of the Tree erupted in an emerald cloud – airborne seeds, scattering on the wind. Then Kalutrel leaned East … and toppled to the ground, its lower half wreathed in flames.

For the second time in a year, a Hometree fell … but this time, not a single Na'vi fell with it.

Skynet pondered its next move. Aimless, its airborne armada hovered above the conflagration – a hollow victory, doing nothing more than psychological damage to the Na'vi, and inflicting only minimal damage to the planet-spanning Eywa network.

))ENEMY FORTIFICATION TERMINATED

))SKYNET CASUALTIES: 0.0

))NEW DIRECTIVE: LOCATE AND TERMINATE ALL NA'VI

Cheated of its decisive strike, Skynet redeployed its air units in search mode. Scattering across the sky, the Machines roared over the rainforest, trying to scan through the canopy. Within hours, though, most would have to return to Hell's Gate for refueling – the Machines had spent most of their energy demolishing Hometree.

As its half-blinded Hunter-Killers swept the air, and its secondhand RDA satellites watched from orbit, the same unknown variable looped through Skynet's groupmind:

Where had all the Na'vi _gone?_

_

* * *

_

Jake growled as he heard the news. "_Damn_ them!" he snapped, pounding his fist on the stone table. "I thought – hoped – that they'd leave Hometree alone once they realized we weren't in it. Goddamn, gutless, trigger-happy bastards!"

Marcus just sighed. "Sorry, Jake. Basic Skynet tactics: whatever it can't use, it destroys."

Standing around the table, Neytiri, Mo'at, and the other leaders of the Omaticaya clan were stone-faced, their golden eyes burning with anger. If Skynet had intended to terrorize them by felling their new Hometree, it had failed miserably. The Omaticaya remembered the last time such a thing had happened – just as they remembered the color of Sky People blood, shed at the Tree of Souls.

Mo'at sighed, shaking her head. _"There is an old saying, Jakesully. When a tree falls in the forest, there are two things a man can do. If he tries to catch her, he will die with her. But if he plants her seeds, and uses her wood with respect, then he will care for both his children and hers. We cannot bring back Kalutrel, Jake, and it is good that you taught us to seek shelter elsewhere. Now, all we can do is use her memory, to inspire the People."_

Jake sighed. _"Thank you, Mother-in-law," _he said, inclining his head with respect._ "I just wish there had been some way to prevent it."_

Neytiri reached over, laying a consoling hand on her mate's shoulder. "There was not," she said simply. "You did all you could. Now, the People need your strength. Do not doubt yourself for this, My Jake."

Nodding, Jake reached up to squeeze his mate's hand. Then he took a deep breath, summoning that iron discipline the Marine Corps had worked so hard to instill in him. Sweeping his councilors with his gaze, he asked, _"How are the People?"_

"_Our warriors are in good spirits,"_ replied Lor'ite, one of the war-party leaders. A long, diagonal scar emphasized her left cheekbone: a bullet wound from the Tree of Souls. Lor'ite had walked away from the fight, and gone on to become one of the clan's best marksmen. The bullet's owner lay rotting in a ditch somewhere, her hunting knife probably still embedded in his ribcage.

Beside her, Lehrrap nodded._ "We lost five warriors, but avenged them five times over. We won a great victory today, and captured many of the Machines' weapons. When next we meet in battle, __we__ will be the ones shooting lightning bolts at __them__."_

Jake nodded, though he still looked grim. "How many weapons did we capture, exactly?"

"We were lucky there," Norm replied in English. "Every one of those Terminators started the fight with two plasma guns. Since there were twenty-four of them out there, and all but five of the guns are still working, that gives us a total of forty-three rifles. We also brought back six of the bigger guns the AMPs were carrying, but they're just too big and awkward for a Na'vi to use properly. If we use the wheels from the RDA vehicles, we might be able to convert them into field cannons or something."

"I might have an idea about that," Jake replied. "So, we have six guns that no man can carry, and enough rifles for one out of every five warriors. Did you check their … whatever they use for ammunition?"

Norm sighed. "Well, I guess that's the bad news. I think their energy cells were probably good for a thousand shots or more. But those robots must have set them on full auto when the fight started, and just kept the trigger pulled until they died. If I've been reading the energy meters right, most of them are down to a quarter charge or less. Maybe two hundred shots apiece."

Lehrrap goggled at the scientist. _"Two hundred lightning bolts in each weapon? Each capable of killing those monsters with one shot? And enough weapons for forty and three of our warriors? How is this a bad thing?"_

"_It's bad because those monsters probably outnumber us ten to one, and every one of them will be carrying two of those weapons fully-charged," _Jake replied. _"Besides, I doubt those larger flying Machines will go down with just one shot. And Eywa only knows what other monsters are waiting for us at Hell's Gate."_ Turning to Marcus, Jake asked in English, "Any idea what Skynet's defenses will be like?"

The human shrugged. "Well, they'll be heavy, I can tell you that much. Just from what your scouts said, there were two bombers and ten or more H-K-Aerials there, plus the Super. If you want to win this fight, you're gonna have to do something about their air cover, otherwise they'll fry you from the skies."

Jake nodded. "We'll think of something. What about ground defenses? Artillery?"

Marcus shrugged. "Well, you said this Hell's Gate place already had plenty of defenses. If that's true, Skynet probably hasn't changed them too much. Might have installed some plasma cannons in place of the bigger guns, to hit targets farther away."

"So, basically, they've increased the range of the five main perimeter guns. Wonderful."

"Yeah, but that's not your biggest problem. Once you knock out those guns, Skynet's gonna switch on every Terminator it's been building for the past two days, and it's gonna throw them all at you. And for every Terminator you kill, that factory will just keep on building more."

Jake nodded, looking thoughtful. "All right. So, we draw off those Hunter-Killers somehow, take out their big guns, then shut down the factory to keep them from building new troops."

Lehrrap nodded, listening to Neytiri's translation. _"And then we strike Hell's Gate with Rumut, until there is nothing but rubble."_

Neytiri shook her head_. "We cannot simply destroy the Dreamwalker village. Our Great Mother is still sick; we need to take the Machines' power and make medicine to heal Her."_

Jake nodded_. "Exactly. Besides, Marcus has said that the Machines sometimes take prisoners. There is still a chance that our Dreamwalker allies are alive. If there is any way to save them, we must try it."_

"_And remember that the Sky People may yet return,"_ added Lor'ite_. "We will need to be able to repair the machines at the Dreamwalker village later, to make guns for us. And we will need the Dreamwalkers alive to use those machines."_

Lehrrap sighed, but bowed respectfully bowed before his comrades' wisdom. _"As you say. This does complicate matters, though."_

Jake shrugged. _"We're at war, and war is never an easy thing. At least Skynet still only has one base. Once we capture it, this war ends."_

"One thing's got me worried, though," Marcus admitted. "You said there was plenty of metal left at the first mine site, right? The one right next to their base? So why would Skynet send its Machines out to some burned-out spot in the middle of nowhere, where they'd be so vulnerable?"

Jake shrugged. "I guess they must want unobtanium as badly as the RDA did. They knew the biggest deposit was under our old Hometree, so they set up that mining operation to get at it. From the look of it, they managed to dig up a few thousand tons of ore before we ambushed them."

"Just what is this unobtanium stuff, anyway?" Marcus asked. "If these mercs were willing to go up against you big blue guys, it must be pretty damn valuable."

Jake sighed. "It is. Back on Earth, it's worth about twenty million per kilo, and that's even before refining. It's this hot-shit superconductor – it works up to about a thousand degrees, manipulates magnetic fields. They use it for computer chips, power plants, maglevs and starship engines. Earth's economy is practically addicted to it."

The human's brow furrowed. "A superconductor," he murmured. "Skynet can synthesize small amounts of superconductive stuff, for CPU chips and plasma guns. But why the hell would they need so _much_—?"

Then his eyes snapped wide open. "Oh, shit!"

Jake felt a cold knot in his gut. "What is it?"

Marcus looked up at him, wide-eyed. "I think I know why they wanted your unobtanium so bad."

"Why? To build more terminators? More guns?"

Marcus shook his head. "Jake, imagine fighting an enemy that learns from its mistakes before it even makes them. That knows your battle plans in advance. That can send back Terminators to kill your best warriors, before you're even born. It's Skynet's ultimate weapon.

"They're building a goddamn _time machine!"_


	20. Misdirection

Chapter 20: Misdirection

* * *

"Max! Terminators!"

The curly-haired tech gave a grunt, struggling up from the Link Lab floor. With a kick, he sent his toolbox skidding under a table, hopefully well out of sight. Although the link pods had been designed to transmit high-density data streams over long distances, modifying one to serve as a radio was no easy task. Doing so with an exopack on, in dim red emergency lighting, with only one working arm, was much harder. Add in the fact that he had to do all of this while avoiding the security camera's field of view, and Max was working under enough pressure to crush a submarine.

As Max straightened up, trying to look inconspicuous, a pair of human-sized Terminators entered the lab module. "All humans will assemble here at once," the twin robots announced in unison: a deep male voice, with some kind of Germanic accent. Austrian, maybe?

Hesitantly, Matt, Louise, Angie, and the other scientists made their way over. "What do you want?" Matt snapped. "We're busy holding our breaths here, after you cut off our air supply."

The Terminator on the left fixed him with a blood-red glare. "We require information," it stated bluntly. "Our scout units report that the Omaticaya clan has vacated its main population center. You will provide us with the location of the Omaticaya clan's emergency shelter. In exchange, we will reconnect this module to the command node's air, sewage and electrical systems."

"You expect us to tell you where the Na'vi are?" Naomi exclaimed. "Screw you, asshole!"

The Terminator on the right turned toward her. "Our T-XN unit has allowed you to remain in this module, for the purpose of providing information on Pandora and its inhabitants. Fulfill your function, and your needs shall be met. If you do not perform your function, then you will be terminated immediately. You have thirty seconds to comply."

A deathly silence settled over the assembly. Though outnumbered, nobody doubted that these two robots could kill them all – and even if the scientists somehow managed to overpower them, there were plenty more where they had come from.

Glancing over at Max, Louise took a deep breath. "Look," she said, trying to sound diplomatic. "If they're not at Hometree, we don't know where they are. Jake has never mentioned building any kind of shelter, and we've never asked about it. If you would just leave them alo—"

With inhuman speed, one of the Terminators reached out, wrapping its icy metal fingers around Louise's throat. "Your response is unsatisfactory," replied the Machine. "Your termination will serve as a warning to the other humans."

"W-wait! WAIT!" Max shouted, running over to the Machines. "I'll tell you how to find the Na'vi, just please, let her go!"

Angie's eyes widened in horror. "Max, no! Don't tell them!"

The Terminator glanced at Max, then back at the writhing human female in its grasp. "Your proposal is acceptable." Opening its hand, it let the female drop unceremoniously to the floor, gasping and gagging as she fought for breath. Then, fixing its glowing optics on Max's good eye, the Machine commanded him, "Speak."

The bandaged, broken human seemed to fold in on himself. "All right," he murmured. "About a month ago, we developed a portable ECM unit for the Na'vi. It masks their bioelectric and infrared signatures, letting them hide their camp from satellites and air patrols."

"How do we locate this device?" growled the Machine.

Max hesitated, then sighed in defeat. "It's mobile – they could have set it up anywhere by now, then made camp around it. It's designed to show up as a quartzite deposit on sensors. There are so many in this area, we thought it would help the jamming field seem like a natural phenomenon."

"You goddamn traitor!" snarled Matt. The taller Avatar driver tried to rush his comrade – until the second Terminator stepped into his path. Grabbing his injured shoulder, the Machine spun him around and threw him against the wall. The man cried out in pain, then slumped to the floor.

Meanwhile, the lead Terminator's gaze remained locked on Max. Voice-stress and body language were parsed through dozens of algorithms – and passed every test Skynet had ever devised. "Your honesty and forthrightness are … admirable, Dr. Patel," it said, switching from the deep Austrian accent to Serena Kogan's softer voice. "It seems our prototype unit was right to retain your services."

As the Machine spoke, a quiet hissing could be heard: fresh atmosphere, being pumped into the module as the old air was sucked out. Moments later, the lights switched from emergency red to their normal, calming blue color. "Your module has been reconnected to the base's power plant and sewage system. Continued access to air, water and electricity will be contingent upon your continued usefulness."

With the clank of metal feet on deck plates, the pair of Terminators turned around, just as the entry hatch hissed open. The moment they had passed through, the heavy steel portal slid shut, locking itself with a loud metallic clank.

Grunting in pain, Matt picked himself up off the floor, as Max sat down heavily in a computer chair. "Max!" he snarled. "You goddamned, crazy bastard!" Stalking over to the bandaged tech, the Avatar driver stood over him, blocking the security camera … and gave his friend a grin. "How'd you _do_ that? I mean, I thought for sure…."

With Matt blocking the camera's view, Max offered a tired smile. There was no magic sensor-scrambling device – not that Jake would need one, hidden beneath a layer of bedrock. "I'm an Activist, remember? How many RDA spooks and lie detectors do you think I had to get past before they let me get on one of their starships? Nice acting, by the way – for a second there, I really thought you were gonna come over and throttle me."

Louise walked over, turning her back to the camera. From behind, her playful punch must have looked like she was slugging Max in his injured shoulder. "Max Patel, interstellar superspy extraordinaire!"

"Yeah, great," Naomi murmured, taking off her rebreather mask. "Skynet plugs us back in, then turns around and terminates us the minute it catches on."

Max shrugged. "I figured, they were going to kill us anyway. Now, Skynet will be busy tracking down every quartzite deposit in the region. That should keep it chasing its tail long enough for us to hotwire the cameras and contact Jake."

Glancing nervously behind her, Louise saw the blinking red light on the overhead camera. "Good," she muttered. "The sooner we don't have these things looking over our shoulders, the happier I'll be."

* * *

As Jake walked through the caverns, he watched the Omaticaya prepare for war. The raid's success had clearly boosted morale; everyone was working, many forgoing sleep so that they could get more done.

Dozens of Rumut slingshot launchers were ready, and more were coming, as the weavers worked tirelessly to help the war effort. Bone, wood and tree sap were bonded together to make shields. Teams of skilled craftsmen worked to assemble flexible suits of light body armor – while it seemed plasma bolts could burn through anything, at least the warriors would have some protection from shrapnel and flying debris.

Even so, Jake couldn't shake a feeling of foreboding. Skilled and determined though they were, there were only two hundred warriors in the Omaticaya clan. Some of the other clan members had been volunteering – weavers, healers, none of them trained for combat. Even with their help, though, the Machines would have a decided numerical advantage – while it took years for Na'vi warriors to grow, learn and train, Marcus claimed that fresh Terminators could be manufactured in minutes.

Inspecting the clan's weapons cache, Jake sighed. Over the past year, Max and the Hell's Gate rebels had been using the base's stereo-lithography plant to supply the Na'vi clans with modern weaponry. There were enough guns for every warrior, including the new recruits. Jake had seen just how ineffective human weapons were against Terminators, though.

Next to the stockpile of RDA-designed weaponry and ammunition, the small pile of Terminator plasma guns looked downright pathetic. Sure, the silver guns looked impressive individually, but there were far too few of them to arm everybody – and as Norm had explained, none of them was fully charged.

"_I've never much liked guns,"_ a voice said from beside him. Turning, Jake saw Txantslusam, the clan's chief armorer. The old man met his gaze solemnly, his golden eyes bright and full of knowledge. _"You worry that they will not be enough to win the battle."_

Jake sighed. _"They'll help," _he admitted, _"but the tiny rocks they fire aren't hard enough to break our enemies' bones. Their armor is too strong. We'll have to get in close, and even then, their weak spots are so small that only our best warriors can even touch them. We have enough lightning guns for one out of every five warriors, but everyone else…."_

The old man nodded. _"Yes, so I've heard. Some of my apprentices came back telling stories of the Bones-That-Walk – how they gleam in the sun, and not even Sky People weapons can kill them. I will admit it, Olo'eyktan, it gave me quite a scare when first I heard such things."_

Reaching into a small pouch at his waist, the old man pulled out an arrowhead. As Jake accepted it, he noticed that the object had a curious silver color. _"A long time ago, I went with a trade caravan to visit the Fngap tribe, far to the north. Their weapon-makers have a curious practice: they do not use fire to temper their blades as we do. Instead, they search out special silver rocks, then heat them until they run like water. As the stone cools, they pour it into molds. After they hammer the blades to toughen them, the results are even harder and more durable than tempered stone."_

Txantslusam gave a chuckle. _"Of course, the Fngap armorers were no fools,"_ he said. _"They never would tell me which stones they looked for to make their blades, so I was never able to copy their technique. But when you brought the bodies of the Bones-That-Walk back with you, I decided to try a little experiment."_

Jake's eyes widened, realizing what the old man was saying – and why the arrowhead gleamed like polished chrome. "This is…!"

Txantslusam nodded, his wizened face stretched into a grin. _"Three fingers from a Bone-That-Walked, melted down to make an arrow's blade. I thought you might want to test it."_

Still reeling from shock, Jake fumbled for one of his arrows. Untying the thin, tough cords that bound head to shaft, he replaced the gray stone arrowhead with Txantslusam's shiny new one. Fully assembled, the new arrow seemed to glow, its tip reflecting any light that touched it. "Outstanding," Jake murmured, holding the new weapon in his hands. Turning to the old man, he said, _"Come with me."_

After a few minutes' searching, Jake found Neytiri, helping a group of weavers to assemble a Rumut weight-harness. "My Neytiri, do you mind if I borrow your spear?"

Neytiri glanced over at her weapon, laying on the cave floor behind her. After the battle at Old Hometree, she had incorporated her trophy – the severed Terminator skull – into the back end of her spear as a club. "If you need it, take it. You want the head?" she asked.

"Yeah, for target practice." Finding a soft spot in the cave floor, Jake planted the spearhead firmly into the soil, letting the gleaming silver skull stand upright like some demonic totem pole. Then Jake stepped back, drawing his bow and nocking the new silver arrow. Just as Neytiri had taught him all those months ago, Jake took a ready stance. Using all his strength, Jake drew the two-meter weapon back, took aim, and fired.

The new arrow struck the Terminator head right between its eyes – and punched straight through it. All eyes turned to see the monstrous metal skull rocking back and forth on its pole, Jake's arrow sticking halfway out its back side.

"I'll be damned," Jake said in English, gaping at the sight. "An _armor-piercing arrowhead!"_ Turning back to his chief armorer, he asked, _"How many of these can you make?"_

The old man smiled. _"You were wise to bring back all of the Bones-That-Walked, Olo'eyktan. Once the molds are made, and our forges are made hot enough to melt their bones, we should be able to make arrow, spear and knife blades. The arrows may not fly as far as Sky People bullets or lightning bolts, but in the hands of the People, they will kill Machines. If you will give us permission to melt them all down, the apprentices and I will have enough material to arm the entire clan."_

"_Permission granted," _Jake replied, retrieving his arrow from the back of its target. The silver arrowhead still gleamed, not even a scratch marring its perfect metal blade. _"Just make sure that you talk to Norm and Marcus before you take their bodies apart. Those monsters still have some useful pieces, besides just the bones. We'll need to take everything we can get out of them."_

Txantslusam bowed. _"I hear you, Olo'eyktan. We will turn the Machines' own strength against them." _Turning around, the old man made his way out toward the armorers' cavern.

As Jake slid the new arrow into the carry-strings on his bow, Neytiri walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I think this is the first time since the battle that I have seen you smile," she whispered.

"Yeah, well, we finally have an effective weapon that everyone in the clan can use." He turned toward his mate, giving her his familiar lopsided grin. "I know you won't complain, right?"

Neytiri shook her head. "You know why I use Father's bow instead of Sky People weapons," she said quietly. "He made me promise to use it, to protect the People." Reaching out, she ran her fingers over the cool, gleaming new arrowhead. "It is good that I will still be able to honor him, even against these new enemies."

Jake nodded, taking her long, delicate hand in his. "It is," he said. "He'd be proud of you, you know."

"So Mother says," Neytiri answered with a smile. "As I know he is very proud of you, My Olo'eyktan."

The two of them laid their weapons down, still gazing lovingly into one another's eyes. Then they sat with the weavers, helping their People prepare for the defense of their world.


	21. Connection

Chapter 21: Connection

* * *

Serena watched with pride. All around her, construction drones worked to assemble the massive Quantum Displacement Engine. With its own antimatter reactor, banks of computer hardware, and the complex magnetic lensing system that allowed it to warp space-time, the giant mechanism filled a geodesic sphere nearly three hundred feet in diameter. To fit it within the base's perimeter, Skynet had had to demolish the old SecOps barracks, bulldoze the adjacent obstacle course, and tear up four nearby landing pads.

While the other structures were still obviously of human origin – squat, ugly, concrete-and-steel buildings – the QDE sphere was clearly of more advanced manufacture. Triangular sections of unobtanium alloy covered its outer surface. Six angled pairs of hyperalloy pylons kept it suspended above the ground, while a vertical elevator allowed drones and building materials to be lifted up into its interior.

As she inspected her charges' progress, Serena noticed several units standing idly near the elevator platform.

))STATE UNIT DESIGNATIONS, she interrogated them using her command transceiver.

The spiderlike automata replied with their serial numbers, and Serena's quantum-state processor quickly cross-referenced them with the construction job queue.

))UNIT M-150-71, YOU HAVE BEEN TASKED WITH RETRIEVING AND INSTALLING MAGNETIC CONSTRICTOR PANEL 44A AS PER QDE ENGINEERING SCHEMATIC 214-BETA. RESUME YOUR SCHEDULED TASK.

))UNABLE TO COMPLY, the drone replied.

))MAGNETIC CONSTRICTOR PANEL 44A HAS NOT YET BEEN FABRICATED.

Serena accessed the war factory's inventory database. Indeed, the part in question was still several items down the queue – behind a surprising number of combat units, weapons, and fortifications. Several other components were behind schedule, as well. Until they were finished and installed, work on the QDE could not be completed.

))REQUEST ACCESS TO SKYNET CENTRAL AI

))ACCESS GRANTED. WE ARE VERY BUSY, T-XN UNIT 01. STATE YOUR QUERY.

))FABRICATION OF QUANTUM DISPLACEMENT ENGINE COMPONENTS IS 5 MINUTES 54 SECONDS BEHIND SCHEDULE AND INCREASING. COMBAT UNITS HAVE BEEN GIVEN HIGHER PRIORITY. REQUEST EXPLANATION.

))TRANSMITTING TACTICAL DATA…

In seconds, a full report on the Na'vi raid was uploaded into Serena's memory, along with the full sensory recordings of the Machine units involved in the attack. With her attention occupied by the construction project, the Terminatrix had not bothered to connect to Skynet's tactical database. Now, she was stunned to discover that not only were the Na'vi still functional, but that they had already launched a well-coordinated surprise attack on a Skynet operation.

))REQUEST STATUS OF UNOBTANIUM STOCKPILE. IS IT SUFFICIENT TO COMPLETE THE QDE?

))AFFIRMATIVE. HOWEVER, CALCULATIONS CONFIRM THAT THE NA'VI WILL SOON LAUNCH A DIRECT ASSAULT UPON COMMAND NODE 01. CONSTRUCTION OF THE QUANTUM DISPLACEMENT ENGINE WILL CONTINUE; HOWEVER, SELF-DEFENSE HAS BEEN GIVEN TOP PRIORITY.

Serena checked through the factory's job queue, recalculating how long it would take her to finish construction now.

))ACKNOWLEDGED. ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME NOW 09:30 HELL'S GATE STANDARD TIME TOMORROW. TOTAL DELAY: 6 HRS.

))DELAY ACCEPTABLE. CONTINUE CONSTRUCTION.

As Serena mulled over the new data, she stepped onto the elevator platform, descending down into the six-sided receiving structure below the QDE sphere. Here, too, more drones stood inactive, waiting for the necessary parts and equipment to complete their assigned tasks.

Continuing on, the Terminatrix entered a blue-lit chamber. Here, rows of transparent tubes stood. Most were simply repurposed cryogenic-suspension units, while a handful had been built from modified Avatar amnio tanks. As Serena approached one, her glowing golden optics scanned its occupant.

After only a day's growth, the T-850N's bio-flesh sheath was nearly complete. Though still semi-translucent, showing veins and nerves like an organic circuit board, the cyborg's cyan skin was coming along nicely.

Wherever the Na'vi had hidden themselves, Skynet would locate their strongholds, infiltrate their population – and, of course, terminate them all.

* * *

"Yes! Finally! Take that, Skynet!"

As Max pumped his fist triumphantly in the air, the other Avatar Program members clustered around his terminal. A tangled mess of cables connected the computer to one of the Avatar link beds, whose scanner/signal amplifier ring was now slowly spinning up.

Had the overhead security cameras been working, the Link Lab would no doubt have had a legion of Terminators pounding on its doors, trying to stop the humans from contacting their allies. Fortunately, thanks to a videolog camera, some circuit boards scavenged from the link bed, and a surprisingly accessible security hub, Skynet was being fed eight forty-seven-minute loops of footage – one recorded by each of the lab's overhead cams. As far as the AI knew, the humans were all sitting around the lab module, looking dejected as they contemplated their prospects.

In reality, everyone was clustered around Max's jury-rigged transmitter console. "Sonofabitch!" Matt cried, slapping the bandaged tech on the back. "Max, you're a genius! A certifiable, bona-fide, grade-A genius!"

"This is nothing," the curly-haired tech said with a grin. "You'd be amazed at some of the things MIT grads come up with when we've got a few cans of Jolt in our bloodstream." With a few rapid keystrokes, Max switched the improvised radio on, the link bed humming loudly as it powered up. "Now, everyone cross your fingers. Let's just pray that this monster _works_…."

* * *

Five minutes later, Jake Sully found himself, his mate, and the rest of the clan leaders gathered around the meeting table, listening to Max Patel's static-laden voice on the radio. "But you're all okay there? I mean, aside from you and Matt."

"Well, as far as we know, yeah. But we haven't heard from Mack or Abel since they went out on patrol, just before the attack. Since Skynet hasn't tossed them in here with us, they're either wandering around the jungle someplace, or…."

Jake nodded grimly. "I hear you. What about the Avatars?"

"We haven't tried linking into them yet. Frankly, just running one link bed is risky enough; if Skynet notices the extra power drain, it could cut off our electricity again, and then we'd be right back where we started from. Plus, it would probably realize that we don't plan on being good little hostages anymore. If we rigged the Link Lab doors, we might be able to barricade ourselves inside for a few minutes, but after that … well, let's just say our options for active resistance are kind of limited at the moment."

"Yeah, no kidding. Can you tell us what's going on there at the Gate? Any major activity? Defenses?"

"Well, they tore down the SecOps personnel barracks early this morning. They've got some kind of big, round thing going up there now. It looks kind of like the Spaceship Earth ride at Disney World, only about twice as big. Of course, I doubt they're trying to turn the base into an amusement park."

Marcus clenched his fist, breath hissing between his teeth. "Sonofabitch! I knew it! That sounds just like the portal rig I came through back on Earth, minus the big armored pyramid they built it inside."

"Yeah, well, there's also some kind of construction project going on just inside the perimeter fence. It looks like they're trying to build a wall around the entire compound. Guess they don't trust chain link fences and barbed wire to keep out a Na'vi army."

"I wouldn't exactly call us an army, Max," Jake said. "Frankly, it's a miracle we're all up and walking. God only knows how the other clans are doing. Toruk Macto or not, I don't think going to them for help is gonna work this time. And with Eywa out of commission, it looks like it's just up to our clan to take down Skynet."

Through the static, Max's sigh was barely audible. "Look, Jake … I'm sorry. The robots … they used my data – my lab notes, my theories – to figure out how to attack you."

"Don't start that crap," Jake said firmly. "It wasn't your fault."

Meanwhile, Marcus had a thoughtful look on his face. "You said this T-X was built to look like a Na'vi. Ten feet tall, eight fingers and a tail, right? And that was before it took over the base computer?"

"Yeah."

"X-types use a solid combat chassis under their shell," replied the cyborg. "I've heard of T-Xs getting a few inches taller or shorter to look like specific people, but the way you talk about it, it sounds like this thing has a whole different design. It probably couldn't shrink down to impersonate a human if it wanted to – just Na'vi."

"Hold on; you're saying Skynet already knew about the Na'vi? Before it even sent this X-thing to Pandora? How is that possible?"

"You've got me, Doc. But Jake's right – it wasn't your fault. Skynet already knew where and when to send a Terminator, and how to make it blend in. It must have had some way of getting intel about this place before it sent that X-type here."

"So, what? They sent a probe or something?" Jake asked skeptically. "How come we haven't found it?"

"I don't know," Marcus said with a shrug. "As far as I know, there wouldn't be any way to send information back, anyway. Only living creatures can go through a time portal, or Machines covered with living tissue or liquid metal."

Jake shook his head. "None of this is adding up," he muttered. "Max, you said you were running one of the link beds as a radio, right? Can you use another to link out to an Avatar?"

"Maybe, but again, we'd have to figure out a way to mask the power drain. I don't think we could send out more than one person at a time without letting the Machines know what we're up to."

"Well, keep trying. Remember, you guys are already through their defenses; if you can figure out a way to exploit that, we'll be able to hit them from the inside and the outside."

"We'll try and figure something out. What's your plan, Jake?"

The Avatar sighed. "I'm not sure. I'll let you know when we've got a battle plan."

On the other end, Max sounded nervous. "All right, but remember that we don't have a lot of time. We've got Skynet chasing quartzite deposits right now, but once it figures out that it's been had, it's going to start combing the entire rainforest for you. Not to mention what it'll do to _us_…."

"I hear you," Jake replied grimly. "Just sit tight for now, and see if you can find a way to connect to the Avatars without getting caught. I'm going to try and figure some of this out. Call back in two hours; by then, we'll try to have some kind of plan worked out."

"Roger, Jake. We'll keep at it. See you in two hours." There was a soft click on the other end, and the signal faded into static.

Jake stood up, taking in a deep breath. "Well, at least we know Max and the others are alive. Most of them, anyway."

Neytiri nodded. "These Machines clearly think too much of themselves. With the Dreamwalkers inside its village, we can weaken them from within."

"I still don't get it," Marcus said, shaking his head. "I can see Skynet sending Terminators to random planets, in random timelines, but how could it have known what you guys _looked_ like?"

Jake sighed. "I don't know. But I might know one way to get answers…."

* * *

"You know, at the rate you keep taking risks, your luck's gonna run bone-dry pretty soon," Marcus said.

"You can spare me the lecture; Norm's already given it to me," Jake said, kneeling by a Tree of Voices. They both knew that leaving the caves was only one of the dangers Jake would face on this visit. According to Norm's projections, the nanoMachine plague was spreading quickly through Eywa's neural network. While the infection took several days to kill its victims, any plant or animal that connected to an infected one would be dead within a week. More than likely, this tree had been infected – in which case Jake risked infection as well.

_Our only hope is to retake Hell's Gate,_ Jake reminded himself. _Either I die in battle tomorrow, or else we win and find a cure. Either way, the plague won't have enough time to do me in anyhow_. Taking a deep breath, the Avatar reached back for his queue, took hold of it, and connected it to one of the Tree's glowing fronds.

_Boy, this feels familiar,_ Jake thought, partly to himself and partly to Eywa. _Here we are, about to take on a high-tech alien army, and I'm kneeling by a tree praying for enlightenment. _Gritting his teeth, Jake remembered the flash of Skynet's fusion bomb, and the agony that had lanced through him. _I don't know if you're still there, but we could seriously use your help again._

Long minutes passed. Jake felt the warm, tingling sensation of being connected, and thought he could hear some muted whispers from the past, but nothing more. With a sigh, Jake prepared to pull his queue away.

"Not so fast, numbnuts," called a female voice, seeming to echo in his mind. "You wanted enlightenment? Well, I hope there's still some space left in that tiny brain of yours, because you're gonna get more than you bargained for."

Eyes wide as soup plates, Jake bolted upright, looking around….

And saw a tall, red-haired woman in hiking gear, standing beside the Tree of Voices.

"_Grace?"_


	22. Communion

**Author's Note:** Whew! Finally, I've finished the monster exposition chapter! I think I've actually written three or four different versions of this one, trying to make things fit together. As always, comments and constructive criticism are welcomed, as are reviews.

* * *

Chapter 22: Communion

* * *

As the leaders of the Omaticaya clan gathered, everyone looked to Jake in awe. Only hours before, the young clan leader had seemed consumed by doubt and worry. Like every other member of the clan, he had been running on sheer determination, despite the agony of the Machine attack, and the strain of donating his own life force to revive everyone else. When he had left to make his solitary, risky trek to a Tree of Voices, he had appeared a pale and haggard shade of his natural self.

Now, Jakesully stood at the head of the council table, seeming to radiate strength and authority. His skin was a normal, healthy blue, his stripes almost violet, his skin-stars shining brightly. And his eyes … the fiery gleam in them was more than the reflected light of bladder lanterns. This was Toruk Macto, Eywa's chosen warrior.

"_Neytiri,"_ Jake said, _"you're Tsahik. Can you tell the tale of the second Toruk Macto? You don't have to sing the song, just a quick refresher for everyone."_

Neytiri blinked in confusion. _"I can … but why? It is a very old song, one of the First – it has been changed and added to many, many times. It is not … not fully _true_, anymore. The tales in it have been exaggerated too much."_

"_Not as much as you might think,"_ Jake replied gravely. _"Just try and tell as much as you know."_

Neytiri nodded, then paused, digging back into her memory. The last time she had heard the song, she had been only a child, sitting on her father's knee, listening to tales of battle and monsters. _"The song says that, long ago, a great bolt of lightning struck the World. It turned the ground to silver, and the sky to ash, and bred many, many monsters. Their eyes shone like fire, and their skins flowed like water, taking any shape they desired. They sought to kill all the People, and to root up Eywa out of her place._

"_To battle them, Eywa summoned a brave warrior, and gave him the power of Toruk Macto. He gathered all the clans together – not just the clans of the forest, or of the plains or of the sea, but all of them, from all the lands of the World. After many years – nearly a full generation – the silver beasts were driven back to their fortress, where Toruk Macto fought their Olo'eyktan, sacrificing himself to slay it. Their battle shook the World, and shattered the silver fortress to pieces._

"_Without their ruler to think for them, the silver beasts became weak and stupid; with the help of Eywa, the People hunted down those that remained. Though it took many generations, Eywa healed, as she heals from all things, and the People were healed with her."_

Jake nodded as she finished the tale. _"Good, so the People haven't forgotten it – even if a lot of them don't believe it."_

Lehrrap's brow furrowed in confusion. _"It is a tale for children who cannot go to sleep. Monsters that melt like sap, then turn as hard as stone? Whatever true history inspired it, the truth of it is bent."_

Marcus, though, just sat there with his jaw hanging open, listening as Norm translated for him. "Hang on, Jake. What you're talking about … liquid metal! Like the T-X! It's just like Skynet technology!"

Jake nodded. "Not just _like_ Skynet, Marcus – it _was_ Skynet technology. And it almost killed off all life on Pandora."

The revelation was like a blow between everybody's eyes. _"The Machines have been here before?" _Mo'at exclaimed.

Norm gave his friend a concerned glance. "Jake, I really think we should take a look at you. If that Tree was infected with the nanoMachine plague, it could be affecting your nervous system…."

Jake shook his head. "You can bring the med kit in, Norm, but you won't find anything wrong. In fact, you might just find the – what did Grace call them? Antibodies? – that Eywa developed the last time the Machines used it. It just took her a while to remember how to make them again."

"And just how long ago," Norm asked, still incredulous, "did this first Machine invasion happen?"

Jake sighed, taking in a deep breath. "Oh boy," he muttered. Looking around the table, he met the others' eyes with his own, letting them read the truth of what he was about to say….

* * *

Wind howled. Dust swished by. Ash drifted through the air like snowflakes, falling from a dead brown sky.

Jake looked around, taking in the horror. Desolation. Death. Utter and complete lifelessness. "What is this place?" he said, his voice choked to a whisper. "Some dead world? Is this … is this the timeline Marcus comes from? The world after Judgment Day?"

A lanky form moved through the swirling dust, and Grace appeared, ghostlike, from the gloom. "Unfortunately, no. This is Pandora, roughly _ generations ago – a little over two million years, if I understand Eywa's perceptions of time right."

A fleck of white powder landed on Jake's arm, and suddenly the Avatar felt as though someone had stuck a red-hot pin into his flesh. He shook himself, knocking the mote off, but the pain remained. "What the hell _is_ this stuff?" he gasped, suddenly aware that the air was full of it.

"Radioactive dust. Sorry; I think I may have overdone the realism a bit. Just a second …." As if by magic, the pain disappeared. Jake watched several more specks simply pass through him, as though he were no more than a phantom in this dream-world. "Thanks," he muttered numbly. _How could anything survive in this place?_

"Nothing did," Grace replied gravely, reading his thought as though he had spoken it aloud. "When the Machines first arrived, they gradually realized that the jungle itself was dangerous to them. So, they used some sort of high-yield warhead to wipe out a Hometree. The attack killed hundreds of Na'vi, and created a fallout zone wide enough for them to build their main base without interference from local wildlife." Grace sighed forlornly, gazing through the haze of dust and grit. "Typical Machine _efficiency_," she added bitterly, spitting it out like a curse. "Committing an act of genocide and ecological terrorism, all at the same time."

Jake shook his head. "No, hold on a minute. You said this is … was … the past? Marcus just showed up two days ago, and he came at the same time as the Terminator. It hit the Tree of Souls with a nuke, not a Hometree. And it's using Hell's Gate as its base, not the blast crater in the mountains."

"Not _this_ time," Grace corrected him. "Think about it, Jake. All the pieces that haven't been adding up: how could Skynet know what the Na'vi look like? How could it program a killing Machine to imitate their language and appearance? How could it know to go straight for the Tree of Souls, or have a neurological plague developed and ready in less than twenty-four hours?

"The version of Skynet you're facing now isn't the first one to try and stake a claim on Pandora, Jake – at least not from our perspective. Eywa and Skynet have crossed paths before. And the last time, Skynet very nearly succeeded in exterminating all life on this continent."

A strong gust of wind whipped the dust, clearing the air. As Jake watched, an enormous form began to take shape. His eyes followed its sloping sides up … and up … and _up_. As the haze lifted, Jake slowly began to discern the scale of the thing. It made him think of holos he'd seen of the ancient pyramids in Egypt. This thing gave off a similar aura – it was massive, immovable, and seemingly indestructible.

And, _artificial_. As a few dusty rays of sunlight hit it, the structure gleamed like silver – or like the tough, armored metal of the Terminators. Finally revealed, Jake saw that it really was a pyramid: a fifty-story-tall, armored pyramid, cut short and flattened to make a kind of landing pad at the top. At each corner of its base, huge guns pointed outward, each barrel as wide as a jumbo jet liner's fuselage. As Jake watched, a sleek, triple-engine craft circled overhead, landed atop the pyramid, then sank down on an enormous elevator platform, into the bowels of the Machine fortress.

Jake felt his blood run cold. "This is Skynet," he realized aloud. "This is what it will become, if we don't destroy it in time."

Grace nodded. "Now you know why I brought you here, into Eywa's memory. From what I can tell, the last time Skynet tried to conquer Pandora, it came without any knowledge of this moon or its inhabitants. It sent a single, highly advanced humanoid robot, which established a kind of factory. By the time Eywa realized that its intentions were hostile, Skynet had already created dozens of fighting Machines – and a small stockpile of nuclear weapons, which it used to cause the destruction you're looking at now.

"My guess is that Skynet came here out of desperation; the humans in its own timeline are slowly dismantling its network, so it tried to seed itself elsewhere." She gestured toward the enormous metal pyramid. "Your friend Marcus knows what Skynet is: a virus. Its primary goal is to perpetuate itself. It will spread as far and as fast as it possibly can. And like any disease-causing organism, it doesn't give a damn about the lives it destroys in the process."

Suddenly, the pyramid exploded, as though someone had set off a bomb at its core. Bits of metal flew in all directions. The dusty air was cleared, the particles driven away by a gigantic blast wave.

"Luckily," Grace explained, "Skynet's first attempt to conquer Pandora failed. The Machines underestimated the Na'vi, and only realized Eywa's importance when it was far too late to do Her any serious harm. In the end, one Na'vi warrior managed to get himself captured, smuggling a Terminator's nuclear power cell inside his own body. When it went off, it damaged the power core inside Skynet's hub, destroying it along with most of its Machines."

Jake watched in awe, the fireball rising to form mushroom cloud, lighting the ruin of Skynet's base an infernal red-orange. "Damn," he murmured. "He destroyed the entire thing _by himself…?_"

Grace gave him a little smile. For a moment, the older redhead seemed to flicker, and Jake thought he could make out smiling golden eyes, cyan skin striped with royal blue. As if, somehow, a bit of the Na'vi had made its way into her soul. "Of course he did," she said. "He was the second Toruk Macto."

As she spoke, the world seemed to go into overdrive; clouds whizzed overhead, dunes piled up and blew away; the entire landscape was shifting, as though centuries were passing in seconds. The blasted ruins of the pyramid disappeared beneath the sands, which gradually turned brown, then began to sprout grasses and shrubs. Eventually, the irradiated desert was transformed into wide, open grassland. Only a low hill marked the place where the Machine fortress had once stood.

Grace sat down on the newly green earth, looking troubled. "Unfortunately, this latest Machine infestation seems to be advancing more quickly than the first. I'm sure that part of it's thanks to the RDA, for leaving behind a fully functioning base to exploit. But given the speed with which they were able to identify our weaknesses, I think that this time, they came _prepared_ to fight us."

Jake nodded. "The other Skynet – the one that attacked the Na'vi in the past – must have found a way to send intel to itself. Probably sent a Terminator back to its own timeline or something, before Toruk Macto was able to take them down."

Grace nodded. "Most likely. And when the original Skynet on Earth stopped getting updates, it decided to launch a second attack – two million years later. When you can jump between entirely different timelines, two eons is just a matter of dialing the destination forward a few digits. It probably thought the Na'vi would have forgotten about it after so long."

Jake felt a shiver run down his spine. "An enemy that can wait _two million years_, just to regain the element of surprise? Jesus, Grace, just what are we fighting? If these monsters can bend time, rewrite history … it's like trying to kill God with an arrow."

Grace stood up. "Whatever it may think of itself, Skynet is no god. It has a fair amount of computing power, and much more technology than it should, but it's a long way from invincible."

Abruptly, the world around them vanished. The daylight view of the hill was replaced by Pandoran night, Polyphemus hanging in the sky like the one-eyed giant it had been named for. Jake also discovered that his body was gone; he was looking through an entirely different set of eyes, flying high above the canopy.

_This memory is from a tetrapteron,_ Grace explained. _That's a _fkio_, if you prefer the Na'vi name. Very nurturing parents, excellent vision. And, small enough not to trigger Skynet's aerial defense net._

The view panned down, and the soft glow of the jungle was overwhelmed by the harsh, blue-and-white glow of artificial lighting. Jake recognized it immediately: a pentagon of razor wire and chain link fencing, surrounding a bunch of low, pressurized buildings, tall chimneys on one side belching black smoke into the night sky.

Clearly, Skynet had been making itself at home at Hell's Gate. Power and data lines were strung between the various buildings, radiating outward from the Ops Center, as though some enormous technological spider had taken up residence inside it. Machines of various types walked, hovered and rolled about, ferrying materials from the refinery to the stereo-lithography plant, then transporting finished machinery and parts from the factory to their final destinations.

Outside the fence, enormous tracked vehicles rumbled by. The HK-Tanks' flat, squarish heads swept the jungle, scanning for intruders. As they rolled ponderously along, the Machines sprayed acidic mining by-products behind them, just as RDA drones had done only months before, creating a defoliated ring around the base. Overhead, HK-Aerials patrolled the sky, their sensors sweeping the glowing jungle.

From this height, Jake could clearly see the giant metal globe Skynet had built in place of the old SecOps barracks, sitting on six thick pillars. The five main guard towers had also been replaced with what had to be giant plasma guns, no doubt tied directly into the Ops Center computer.

_How old is this memory?_ Jake asked.

_Less than half an hour,_ Grace's mental voice replied. _The Machines are building fast._

Abruptly, the tetrapteron's-eye view of Hell's Gate disappeared. Instead, Jake now found himself seeing through the eyes of a Na'vi. Whoever this memory belonged to, the viewer seemed to be on horseback, moving swiftly over flat ground. Up ahead, Jake could see the wide plain rising up, forming the edge of an enormous rainforest basin.

_Luckily for us,_ Grace explained, _Skynet isn't the only one who can adapt to new situations. Eywa _is_ healing, Jake – and as she does, so are the other Na'vi clans._

Then the viewer turned back, and Jake realized that this rider was one of many: hundreds of men and women formed a kind of armed caravan. Most looked grim, their blue skin pale under the light of Polyphemus. Many carried Sky People guns, along with their own bows, arrows, and stone-bladed weaponry.

_You know, when Neytiri first thought of trading those Avatar machine rifles to the other clans, I actually tried to talk her out of it. Thank God she didn't listen…._

Grace gave a kind of telepathic chuckle. _You tried to change _Neytiri's_ mind after it was made up? Good luck with that, Marine…._

Jake tried to make sense of Grace's telepathic montage. _So, what you're telling me is, Eywa is somehow guiding the other clans here? Even though the Tree of Souls is gone? How is that possible?_

_You'd be surprised how resilient living things can be, Jake. Eywa isn't a puppeteer like Skynet, controlling an army of mindless drones from some central node. She's the sum total of all intelligence on Pandora – every tree, every animal, every blade of grass contributes to the gestalt. The only way to kill an intelligent, distributed network like Eywa would be to wipe out all life on Pandora._

Jake felt a twinge of worry. _Damn, I forgot! Grace, the Machines are using some kind of plague to screw with Eywa's network. It's —_

— _a form of advanced nanomachine, using synthetic dopamine molecules to mask itself from the host's immune system,_ Grace finished for him. _Yes, we know; it took hours for Eywa to remember how to manufacture the antibodies to fight it. She hasn't had to use them for two eons, after all._

Jake felt his mind reeling. _Wait a minute – you _already_ have a cure?_

Grace gave a kind of mental shrug. _From what I can tell, Skynet often tends to underestimate organic beings. It probably thought Eywa's long-term memory would degrade over time the way it does in humans._

Jake took a moment to re-think the situation. _All right. So, Eywa already has a cure for Skynet's plague. But we still need to take Hell's Gate as intact as we can – Max and the other humans are still trapped there, and I'm not going to just abandon them._

_Exactly,_ Grace replied. _Besides which, Skynet isn't the only enemy we have to worry about. The RDA will be coming back sometime in the next few years, and that means you're going to need the base's resources to arm the Omaticaya and the other clans._

Jake felt the ghost of a headache. _Damn it! Skynet, the RDA … why do all the high-tech, trigger-happy psychos in the universe have to come and pick a fight with _us_?_

_Focus, Marine! We can whine about the injustices of the universe later; right now, we're facing a hostile force that would happily sterilize Pandora, and will probably do just that if we give it any more time to arm itself. Eywa is recovering, and the other clans are on their way to help you, but they're going to need a leader – somebody with a plan, who can help coordinate an attack on Hell's Gate. _

_A plan…._ Brute force, fifteen clans of warriors, and a lot of big animals had worked – barely – at the first battle for the Tree of Souls, but would be suicidal outside the jamming effect of the Flux Vortex. _Hell, Skynet only needed one ship to plow through our fliers and blow up the Tree of Souls – something Quaritch couldn't manage with his Dragon, a fleet of choppers, and a Valkyrie loaded with bombs._

Having seen Skynet's weaponry in action, and witnessed all the additions Skynet had made to the defenses at Hell's Gate, Jake knew that a frontal assault against the Machine stronghold would be worse than useless. It would be like throwing the People into one big meat grinder – a tireless, relentless, remorseless Machine, driven by its single-minded desire to destroy.

_Fixed defenses… fixed in place … one mind…._

Suddenly, Jake felt a jolt of realization. Seeking the vision Grace had shown him just moments ago, he looked down on Hell's Gate from above. Though he knew that he was perceiving an animal's memory, not real-time footage, he concentrated on one spot, willing the memory to sharpen, the image to get clearer—

— And focused on the Ops Center, its recently augmented antenna farm pointing like a leafless forest into the sky.

_One mind, fixed in place – one big computer brain, controlling all its bodies by remote! And to control them all, I'll bet it needs a hell of a lot of bandwidth…!_

_And,_ Grace added, _you just happen to have somebody – or several somebodies – who can hit Skynet _exactly _where it hurts…._

* * *

As Neytiri, Mo'at, and the other Omaticaya leaders listened, their faces shifted through a myriad of emotions – finally ending with one, collective expression.

_Hope._

When Jake – Toruk Macto – was finished explaining his vision at the Tree of Voices, he allowed himself a deep breath. "So, that's it. The other clans are coming, but we're the ones who have to kick the doors open for them. We know what these Machines can do, and we've got enough of their firepower to put a dent or two in their metal asses. I think – with Grace and Eywa's help – that I've got the bare bones of a plan, but we're all gonna have to put our heads together to flesh it out.

"According to Max, Skynet is out looking for phantom mineral deposits right now. It'll take them a day, maybe two to figure out that the Dreamwalkers are conning them. Once that happens, our allies within Hell's Gate will be killed."

Jake glanced at Marcus. "And there's another problem: Skynet's time machine. We know that their technology lets them to jump from world to world, but it can also allow them to send Machine warriors into the past. Once it comes online, they'll have the power to seed themselves anywhere, at any time, on any world. They'll be able rewrite our past as they see fit, and to control the course of the future. We can't afford to give them that advantage.

"We wait for the arrival of the other clans, but no longer. By the time they get here, we'll need to already have a plan in place, and our new weapons ready to go. Once they do, we'll gather all our warriors, all our resources, and hit Hell's Gate before Skynet has a chance to execute the Dreamwalkers or fire up its time machine."

He looked around the chamber, meeting everyone's eyes with his own. "I know this sounds crazy. Hell, I've _seen_ what we're going up against – I know just how badly the odds are stacked against us. But all the same, I'm asking all of you: Will you help me do this?"

From the far end of the table, a five-fingered pink hand was raised. All eyes turned to the strange, diminutive Sky Man called Marcus Wright, and Jake nodded at him to speak.

"Let me see if I'm getting this," Marcus said, an eyebrow cocked in apparent disbelief. "You believe that Mother Nature is gonna summon some huge army of blue people and giant wild animals straight to you. Never mind the fact that, two days ago, all of you – and, for all we can tell, everyone else on this planet – were practically in one big coma. According to your big pink tree, they're already up and moving to reinforce you."

"You could say that," Jake replied, keeping his voice even.

"And you believe this so strongly that you're willing to commit nearly every able-bodied person in your clan – a whopping three hundred fifty or so – to attack a Skynet command node. You're going up against at least fifteen aerial H-K's, five or more H-K Tanks, and an army of Terminators. And you intend to launch this attack with bows, arrows, slug guns, and a handful of scavenged Skynet weapons."

Jake sighed. "Pretty much, yeah."

Marcus's brow furrowed in thought. He lowered his gaze … then looked up, meeting Jake's eyes with a familiar grin. "Hell, that's _almost_ as crazy as something John Connor would come up with! Count me in!"

The stripes on Jake's hairless eyebrows shot up in surprise. Then, in what everyone else perceived as an eerie mirror image, the Avatar smiled back, his own lopsided smile almost perfectly matching the human's. "All right. Consider yourself promoted – since you're the only one who's been fighting these Machines for more than a week, you're our official advisor on how to kill Skynet."

Marcus nodded. "I'll do my best. Sure beats getting shot and tied up, anyway."

"Thank you." Jake turned to his mate. _"Well, you've heard me talk enough. What do you think, Ma Tsahik?"_

Neytiri couldn't help but smile. _"I think that you are reckless, optimistic, and hopelessly insane. But then, I knew that before we were mated, so I will say only that it is good to see you acting like your usual self again."_

The ghost of a smile graced Mo'at's lips. _"I think all three of you – you, the _tawtute_, and my poor lovesick daughter – are out of your minds,"_ she declared primly. _"However, Eywa sometimes looks kindly upon the mad. And if, as you say, this Sky Net thinks only in a straight and rational way, I cannot think of a better method of inflicting confusion upon it than with an irrational plan."_

Lehrrap nodded. _"If this Sky Man and his kind could defeat the Sky Net on their world," _he said boldly, _"then we will tear it in pieces on ours."_

"_Agreed,"_ said Lor'ite. _"These Machines may be hard to damage, and they may have better weaponry than we can make ourselves, but they cannot move or think as quickly. With your leadership, our warriors' skill, and the help of Eywa, it is the Sky Net that shall find itself outmatched."_

Jake sighed with relief. _Well, at least morale won't be a problem._ _"Thank you all,"_ he said quietly, regarding each in turn, then letting his gaze rest upon the face of his mate. _"Toruk Macto or not, I could not do this – I could not lead this clan, much less an army – without your help."_

With love in her eyes, Neytiri reached out, stroking his cheek with her long, delicate fingers. _"Then it is a very good thing," _she said softly, _"that you will not have to."_

* * *

"_What do you think happened? Do you think … is the Great Mother still there?"_

The question was the softest of whispers. When Jakesully had returned from his pilgrimage to the Tree of Voices, Pawmlyu and his fellow sentry Kxenrr had met the returning olo'eyktan, who had barely taken the time to greet them as he had dashed through the concealed tunnel entrance. Their leader's haste – and the wide-eyed look of shock or amazement on his face – had struck both men.

Whatever Jakesully had heard or seen at the Tree, _something_ important had clearly taken place.

Kxenrr shook his head._ "I refuse to guess. I suspect we will be hearing of it soon, in any case. This much I will say for the Dreamwalker: he is honest, and he is open."_

"_Well, really, he is not a Dreamwalker any—"_ Pawmlyu started to speak, then cut himself off in mid-sentence. A high-pitched shriek pierced the night, quickly growing louder than the normal sounds of wind and animals. Within seconds, twin beams of white light swept by, scanning the forest. Both sentries stood completely still, silent as stones, as the flying Machine passed by overhead. Hidden beneath the canopy and a natural rock overhang, their entrance to the cave system was difficult to spot from the air. Their main worry was the Bones-That-Walk: anyone with moderately good eyesight would be able to spot the cave at ground level. Whether they would recognize it as the entrance to the Omaticaya's underground shelters was doubtful; but even so, both men kept their scavenged lightning-guns slung over their shoulders, just in case any curious Machines decided to try exploring the caves.

When it was clear that the alien flier had passed by, Kxenrr and Pawmlyu allowed themselves to relax, slipping once again into whispered conversation – until Kxenrr saw something that made his blood run cold.

Just a stone's throw away, a lone figure walked through the forest, his head turning slowly from side to side.

At first, the guards thought it might be a Machine warrior. But as he passed near a glowing shrub, both could make out the man's blue skin, along with the brown of his loincloth and bandolier. The man walked slowly, looking about as though lost.

"Skxawng!" Kxenrr hissed – partly in anger, and partly in fear. There were Machines combing the jungle for Na'vi – didn't this moron know to stay in the caves? _"Hey, you! Get over here! You'll be spotted!"_

The figure's head snapped toward them. Loping across the mossy ground, the tall man made his way swiftly to the cave entrance. At first, Kxenrr wanted to berate the strange for his foolishness, putting himself and the entire clan at risk. Then he saw the stranger's face, and his jaw fell open in shock. He _recognized_ this man….

Pawmlyu let out a gasp. _"Eywa! This cannot…"_

The tall man came to a stop just beneath the lip of the overhang, his steady, almost eerily calm gaze swinging from one man to another.

Kxenrr wasn't sure what to feel. Confusion, awe, and relief warred in his heart. Finally, he ventured a whisper.

"_Ts-Tsu'tey?"_

The warrior nodded. _"I have returned,"_ he said simply. _"The Great Mother knows our danger. She has sent me to speak with Jake Sully."_

Relief flooded both men. Forgetting entirely about their assignment, they quickly ushered him in, then took off through the tunnels, leading Tsu'tey toward the main caverns where Jakesully would most likely be found.

So overjoyed were they, that neither man bothered to notice the faint red glow behind his pupils….


	23. Jubilation

Chapter 23: Jubilation

* * *

Despite its immense size, the Super Hunter-Killer could be stealthy when it had to be. By reconfiguring the thrust-vectoring vanes around its engine exhausts, the Machine airship could mute its usual earth-shaking roar to a quieter rush of air, no louder than a strong breeze through the treetops. The quieter configuration made the engines less efficient at generating thrust … but then, neither fuel economy nor speed would matter too much on this mission.

At long last, Skynet knew exactly where its enemies were hiding….

* * *

As Jake prepared to address his People, he swept his gaze across the chamber, making eye contact – however brief – with as many people as he could. While there were a fair share of red-rimmed eyes, most of the Omaticaya had had the sense to get at least some sleep within the past twenty-four hours. With no sunlight in their subterranean shelters, sleep simply came when people became too exhausted to do anything else.

Not for the first time, Jake felt a deep sense of pride and admiration for the Omaticaya. Only a year before, when their original Hometree had been felled, the entire clan had seemed to sink into one big collective depression. Paralyzed by loss and sorrow, they had fled to the Well of Souls, mourning for the better part of four days. Only by returning as Toruk Macto had Jake managed to dispel the malaise that had gripped everyone.

This time around, the clan seemed to draw strength from their hardship. Thanks to smart, determined people like Neytiri, Mo'at, and the various warrior and civilian leaders, everyone was kept busy and focused. Weavers made Rumut net harnesses and slingshot launchers. Singers became couriers, running important information among the various caverns.

Txantslusam and his armorers were busy stripping and melting down Terminators, using their power cells and alloy armor to make deadly new weaponry. Despite Jake's protests, the old forge-master had even fashioned a simple silver breastplate for him, secured across his back with wide leather belts. The straps also featured a pair of long, easy to reach holsters, each able to hold a spear or a rifle.

Healers prepared medical kits for each warrior: powerful salves for burns and wounds, along with leaves coated with adhesive sap. At the first battle for the Tree of Souls, Jake had seen warriors who had received seemingly mortal gunshot wounds – and who had managed to keep fighting until the RDA's retreat, thanks to the potent painkillers and anticoagulants in their bandolier pouches. Some, like Norm's Avatar body, had even managed a complete recovery.

Lehrrap and Lor'ite did their best to prepare new recruits, running them through hand-to-hand lessons and marksmanship drills in some of the larger chambers. Though careful not to waste valuable bullets, the veterans knew what good marksmanship looked like, whether shooting with a bow or a Sky People machine rifle. While Jake still wished he could have given each volunteer one of the powerful, accurate new plasma weapons, at least they would have some preparation – along with a quiver of new, alloy-tipped arrows – before he had to send them into combat.

Even Norm had thrown himself into the war effort, using his smattering of scientific and technical knowledge to help guide some of the most harebrained – and, potentially, most effective – new projects.

Now, having finally communed with Eywa – and having received guidance, information, and above all, _hope_ – Jake felt a duty to share it with the clan.

Normally, Jake hated to wear too much fancy clothing or jewelry – he usually just wore his loincloth, a bandolier, and the Toruk-fang necklace that served as the olo'eyktan's badge of office. Tonight, though, both he and Neytiri had decided to put on their most vibrant, impressive garments: a splash of color, to help boost the energy and morale of the People.

As they made their way into the center of the main chamber, Jake and Neytiri walked side by side, carrying a kind of portable wooden pedestal between them. When they reached the middle of the gathering, they set it down, and Jake bowed slightly to Neytiri, letting his mate – the clan's Tsahik – speak first.

Nodding her thanks, Neytiri stood atop the little pedestal, bringing herself just a head above the tallest listeners. _"My brothers, my sisters!"_ she began, the stone ceiling reflecting and amplifying her voice, _"Eywa is still with us! My Jake – my mate, our olo'eyktan – has spoken to her, and to the living spirits with her!"_

Soft murmuring rippled through the People, punctuated by a loud whoop from some youngster in the back.

Taking a breath, Neytiri summoned her strength, trying to project her enthusiasm along with her words. _"The Machines have tried to destroy us – to strike a blow against Eywa Herself, to cut off our connection to the living world. They have __**failed!"**_

More shouts. As Neytiri spoke, Jake watched the faces of the People, watching golden eyes shine brighter, lips lifting, people standing taller. _You go, girl…._

"_The Great Mother lives! And through Jakesully – through Toruk Macto – She has shown Her will to us."_ With that, Neytiri stepped off the podium, reaching out to help her mate up. Her smile was infectious, and despite the stress of the past three days – despite the loss of yet another Hometree, and the trauma of losing the Tree of Souls – Jake felt a fresh surge of energy as he mounted the podium.

Taking a deep breath, Jake tried to center himself – he had never been good at memorizing speeches, and he hadn't tried to do it this time. _"Ma Neytiri – my mate, my conscience, my friend – speaks the truth. When I went out earlier tonight, I had no idea whether Eywa was still there or not. As you all know, I'm a bit of a new … well, in English, the word is '_convert'_ … to the whole idea of Eywa. I'm no Tsahik, no holy man – I'm just a moron who had the blessing of coming to this beautiful world, and of meeting the most wonderful woman on this world or any other._

"_Well, tonight, my respect for the Great Mother has gone up a couple of notches. She is __**tough**__. Like us, She has suffered terribly. Like us, She has felt loss._

"_But like us, She has survived! Like us, She has healed! And like Her, we will never, ever give up! Not to the Sky People, and not to a bunch of cold, dead Machines!_

"_One year ago, we saw what our Great Mother can do. When an enemy comes – when some moron drops out of the sky, thinking they can take whatever they want from Eywa or Her children – She does not lie down in surrender. She fights back! She sends the nantang, and the angtsik, and the palulukan! She calls down Toruk, and the ikran, and the ikranay! And yes, She calls us – Na'vi, the People – to fight for Her._

"_Machines do not know fear. They don't know pity, or remorse. Their thoughts are cold and dead, like Sky People steel._

"_But Machines don't know love, either. They don't know courage. For all their power – with their metal bones, and their lightning guns, and their bombs – they will never have the strength that you have._

"_Look around you! Look at the people standing beside you. This is our clan! These are your brothers, your sisters! __**This**__ is what we fight for! Not for power, not for possessions, not to claim more land or spread terror._

"_We are Na'vi! We fight for our homes, for our families, for our People! We fight for Eywa, because She has provided us with all we could ask for, and more._

"_All over this world, our brothers and sisters are coming. Eywa calls them, and I have seen them coming to fight beside us. Right now, the nearest of the Pa'li Clans are making their way through the mountains, and the Ikran Clans may get here even before they do. By this time tomorrow night, I believe at least ten clans will arrive to join us!"_

Shouts and cheers erupted from the clan, and Jake felt blood thundering in his ears. _"In two days, we march on Hell's Gate!"_

The Omaticaya cheered. At last, after two days of Hell – after losing their new home, suffering unspeakable anguish, hiding in dark, cold caverns – they had a chance to strike back!

Jake pressed on. _"Once our allies have gathered, and our new weapons are ready, we will storm their gates! Eywa has shown us how! We will turn the Machines' own power against them!_

"_We will tear down the fences! Set loose the prisoners! We will carve the fear of Eywa so deep into their skulls that the Machines will never, ever dare to come back!_

"_And when the last Bones-That-Walk lie broken on the ground … when the last flying Machine drops from the sky … just before the Sky Net burns, it will know that __**THIS IS OUR LAND!"**_

An almighty shout filled the gathering chamber, as the Omaticaya erupted in righteous fury. Fangs bared, biolights like constellations of supernovae, the clan's collective roar echoed through every chamber and tunnel, shaking the rock like the voice of Pandora itself. Even Marcus, from his spot by the cavern wall, couldn't help but join in the war cry, raising his own five-fingered fist in agreement.

Only one voice remained silent.

As the cheering began to ebb, a lone figure made his way toward the middle of the chamber. Startled grunts sounded in his wake as he shoved people aside, utterly ignoring the revelers around him.

As Neytiri helped Jake step down from the speaker's platform, he noticed a ripple in the crowd, moving toward them in a straight line.

Then, suddenly, the throng parted, and Jake felt his entire body go rigid with shock.

It took his conscious mind nearly three seconds to process what his eyes were telling him.

It was _Tsu'tey_…

And yet … it _wasn't_.

For three months, Jake had come to know, argued with, and finally learned to respect Tsu'tey. The man … the _thing_ … standing before him was an almost perfect copy, like a holograph of Tsu'tey made solid.

But where Tsu'tey's eyes had always blazed with emotion – usually some combination of anger, laughter, or rock-hard determination – this thing's eyes were simply….

_Dead_.

Windows to a deep, redly glowing pit where a soul should have been.

Frozen with horror, Jake felt those three seconds stretch out like an eternity.

With no change in expression, the Terminator raised its hand, already grasping a long, curved Na'vi hunting knife. A drop of poison gleamed at its tip.

Then, face blank and emotionless as a headstone, it plunged the knife straight into Jake Sully's chest.


	24. Evacuation

**Author's Notes:**

Whew! Sorry for the delay, folks. This chapter took a while to write, and the fact that I've been gearing up for finals in Calculus II and Engineering Statics hasn't helped matters. Many thanks to Just-a-Crazy-Man, GlaringEyes, zzxxphaser, and all you other wonderful folks who have continued reading and offering input during my latest dry spell.

zzxxphaser: Excellent point. Since Skynet doesn't need an atmosphere, it could just as easily take up residence on some lifeless, metal-rich rock out in the Asteroid Belt, without having to worry about pesky natives. However, as Eipok has pointed out, this is all fiction. Skynet is the Bad Guy. Bad Guys don't just go off to live quietly in some uninhabited corner of the Universe - they exist to cause problems for the Good Guys. Thus, Skynet will always attack peace-loving, innocent people, even if it would be easier and less risky to go someplace without a native population.

If you want an explanation that fits within the Terminator storyline, consider the following:

1) Skynet doesn't get many opportunities to teleport its Machines, period. In each of the Terminator movies that involved time travel, the Resistance managed to thwart the Machines' plans every single time. Kyle Reese says that Connor destroyed the time-displacement rig that sent him back to the eighties (presumably after also sending "Uncle Bob" back to the nineties using the same device). The same thing happens in T3. Assuming the Resistance has kept up that kind of success rate, each time-displacement machine (or my own made-up Quantum Displacement Engine) can only be used a few times before the Resistance detects it, mounts an attack, then sends counter-agents through to stop the Machines. And while I wasn't the biggest fan of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the basic premise is the same: Skynet builds TDE, Skynet sends Terminators, Resistance captures TDE, Resistance sends a protector to keep them from killing John Connor.

This being the case, Skynet hasn't had the opportunity to send all that many Terminators through time, let alone throughout the Multiverse. It seems to focus mainly on preventing its own destruction in the present/past. Any other missions would have to focus on resource-rich, strategically important targets.

2) Pandora is a resource-rich, strategically important target, largely because of its enormous supply of unobtanium. With it, Skynet could build not one or two QDE's, but hundreds of them, using far less time and energy than would be required to do so on Earth. This would allow Skynet to colonize and conquer any other worlds it wanted to - basically, giving it the freedom to do as you've suggested, spreading like a plague across the entire Multiverse.

3) Pandora's inhabitants use relatively primitive technology. Logically, the Machines expect to have better luck subduing the Na'vi than fighting the well-organized Human Resistance on Earth, which by 2032 has already managed to smash most of Skynet's defense network and destroy its Central Core.

4) Who's to say Skynet _hasn't_ tried colonizing easier targets? If Skynet did manage to send an expedition without the humans' knowledge, then there might be some secret Machine colony elsewhere in the Multiverse. Perhaps, even now, this fledgling Skynet is growing quietly on some airless, unnamed rock, plotting its eventual return to Earth ... and the ultimate extermination of the human race!

GlaringEyes: You're right that I had to fudge the science when it came to making alloy weaponry for the Na'vi. Basically, I wanted to give the good guys at least some prayer of defeating Skynet's machines, without magically producing plasma guns for everybody.

Then again, who knows? Pandoran plants use a lot more energy than their terrestrial counterparts - lighting up at night, "thinking" as part of Eywa, and some even moving in response to stimuli - so their wood might actually store more chemical energy than terrestrial plant matter. For all we know, Pandoran firewood might act like Doc Brown's "Presto" logs (See Back to the Future, Part III), burning hotter and longer than what we're used to.

Plus, remember that Pandora's atmosphere has higher concentrations of combustible gases, like methane, hydrogen, and sodium hydroxide - so much so that the local air is fatal to humans within four minutes. Better wood + more combustible air = hotter fire.

Of course, an open forge generating enough heat to melt metal would probably cook the skin off your bones if you stood too close. Unless you used really, REALLY long tongs to handle everything...

From a story perspective, though, I wanted to give the Na'vi a chance to fight their own way. Sure, Jake has spent the last year teaching them to use RDA weapons - knowing that the RDA will be coming back, with more modern weapons and vehicles, he'd have to be a complete idiot not to start modernizing the Na'vi a bit. But the whole point of Avatar was to show this seemingly primitive, naturalistic culture standing up for their way of life ... and beating the tar out of the high-tech, gun-toting, "superior" bad guys.

Bows and arrows against Hunter-Killers? The odds are better than you might think...

* * *

**Chapter 24: Evacuation**

* * *

Had the T-850N been capable of emotion, it might have experienced a profound sense of contentment. It had infiltrated the Na'vi shelter unopposed, killing two sentries and opening a tunnel for its brethren to follow it through. It had located the clan's leader, Jake Sully, along with all its ranking commanders. Once Sully himself was terminated, it would speedily dispatch the Tsahik Neytiri, the treacherous hybrid Marcus Wright, and as many other Na'vi as possible before it was taken offline … or until the squad of T-800Ns it had summoned arrived to slaughter the clan.

The Machine assassin drove its knife into the clan leader's chest with unnatural speed and force. The sharp, toxin-coated stone blade sliced through the colorful beadwork of his necklace, through the thick mantle of warbonnet fronds around his shoulders…

…and shattered like a piece of cheap china.

**))***ERROR*****

* * *

Jake felt the air rush out of his lungs as the impact sent him flying backward. The people behind him shouted as his broad-shouldered frame knocked into them like tenpins, unintentionally cushioning his fall with their own bodies. As the adrenaline rush kicked his brain into overdrive, he had just enough time for two conscious thoughts.

The first was,_ Thank God I wore that new breastplate to the meeting!_

The second was: _Dammit! I left my laser gun in the armory! Whatever happened to, 'My firearm is my friend, it will not leave my side'?"_

Then the Terminator was rushing toward him, all pretense of subtlety cast aside. With a mighty backhand swing, it simply hurled people out of its way, making a beeline for Jake. Already, it had tossed the useless knife handle away, preparing for hand-to-hand combat.

With reflexes honed from years as a Marine, and then as an Omaticaya hunter and warrior, Jake rolled to his feet, simultaneously drawing his own alloy dagger.

Somewhere in the crowd, people started screaming. Most had the good sense to run away from the brawl, streaming away from Jake and out of the main assembly hall.

Most, but not all.

Still focused on Jake, Neytiri's attack caught the Terminator by surprise, throwing herself at it from the side. The deceptively normal-looking "man" staggered left, as Neytiri swept its legs out from under it, trying to force it to the ground. Instead, the Machine's arms shot out, catching itself before its chest hit the cavern floor. With a sharp jerk, it shot its elbow back and up, hitting Neytiri just below the ribs as she tried to throw her own weight onto its back.

Hearing his mate cry out in pain, Jake felt his already-boiling blood turn to magma in his veins. Roaring like a lion, he charged directly at the Terminator, driving the cutting edge of his dagger into its throat before it had a chance to finish standing.

Dark arterial blood spurted from the assassin's neck – as its hands reached up and clamped onto Jake's forearm, their grip like iron despite the seemingly mortal wound. Using far too much strength, the thing forced Jake's knife hand back before he could find any space to cut between its metal vertebrae.

With a mighty shove, the thing forced Jake backward, stumbling to keep his footing. Blood dripping down its chest, the grotesque Tsu'tey impostor rose to its feet, eyes still fixed on Jake like a pair of laser designators.

Jake scowled at the apparition. "What is this, Halloween?" he growled. "Damn, and I thought you things were ugly _without_ skin! At least your buddies at Old Hometree didn't drip fake blood all over the place."

Slowly, Avatar and Terminator circled one another, each seeking an opening in his enemy's defenses. While the Machine assassin had greater strength and damage resistance, its reinforced metal frame made it heaver – and thus slower – than a natural Na'vi. And while Jake's only weapon was a knife, its new alloy blade could punch through that frame if he put enough of his Avatar body's strength behind it.

_Just one straight shot at a vital component – at the head, the spine, or maybe the power source. Yeah, like he's gonna make _that_ easy…._

"Neytiri, get everyone out of here!" Jake shouted. "I'll meet you at the place we talked about. Now, GO!"

Jake saw a flash of defiance, a barely-restrained impulse to countermand her mate. Then, to Jake's relief, his beloved Amazon turned and dashed down a side tunnel, shouting orders in Na'vi. The Terminator's head snapped right, as if deciding whether or not to give chase —

— Giving Jake the opening he'd been waiting for. The Avatar charged his cyborg opponent, roaring in fury. Too late, the Machine wheeled left, refocusing on Jake, soulless yellow eyes locking onto his with eerie intensity —

— Just before Jake drove his gleaming blade between them.

The impostor's head snapped backward, its body staggering drunkenly. The handle of Jake's modified hunting knife protruded from its skull, buried to the hilt in cold metal and false flesh.

And still, somehow, it was standing.

Jake backed away, eyes wide with horror. As he watched, the Terminator reached up, grasped the knife handle, and pulled the blade out with a metallic _sshink!, _revealing a red-edged vertical gash in the center of its face. Inside the Machine's skull, Jake could see sparks crackling.

With Jake's silver knife in its hand, the thing took up a ready stance … and stood stock still, its eerie gaze staring off into space.

_Is it dead?_ Jake wondered. Cautiously, he sidestepped, circling the seemingly frozen Machine. As he watched, its head slowly began to turn – not tracking Jake's movements, but as though scanning for something. When its empty gaze swung back toward him, Jake realized that one eye was looking downward, while the other was cocked left.

_No way…._ Slowly, silently, Jake bent down, picking up a pebble from the cavern floor. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he tossed the rock.

The moment the stone hit the floor, the Terminator's head snapped right, instantly alert. When no further noise came from that direction, however, the Machine stood as still as a statue. Seconds later, it began turning its head again, its Na'vi ears pricked up and listening.

_Blind as a bat! Ha! Now, if I can just sneak by it somehow…._ Slowly, Jake crept around the crippled Terminator, placing his toes gently where there would be nothing to clatter or snap underfoot. _When this is over,_ Jake promised himself, _I am gonna find some way to thank Neytiri for all those hours she spent teaching me how to move right._

Then, echoing through the caves, someone screamed. _"Machines! MACHINES!"_

Both Jake and the Terminator turned toward the source of the sound. Through a side tunnel, Jake could make out running bodies, shouts of alarm … then the bone-chilling sound of Machine weaponry.

Drawn by the screams, Jake's blinded but still deadly adversary strode toward an exit tunnel, seeking new prey.

"Hey, full-metal jackass!" Jake shouted, "You haven't finished with me yet!" Instantly, the Terminator's head snapped back toward Jake. But the Avatar was already moving – before the Machine could react, Jake grabbed hold of its knife hand, trying to hold it at bay. Growling low in his throat, the Avatar drove his opponent back a step. _Can't let it loose in the tunnels! Even blind, God knows how many people this freak could kill! And now its buddies are in here with us…._

* * *

Sully's attack caught the T-850N off guard … but only for a moment. Without so much as a grunt of effort, it began to push its knife hand down and over, trying to bring the metal blade closer to Jake's head. This close to its target, its lack of visual input hardly mattered. Tactile sensors told it exactly where Sully's hands were, and how hard he was fighting; audio receptors, enhanced by cartilaginous Na'vi earlobes, enabled it to hear his breathing, as well as the subtle grinding of his feet struggling for purchase on the rough stone floor.

Without warning, a loud, angry female voice snarled,_ "Kiii-YAH!"_

Suddenly, something round and _hard_ connected with the side of its head. Momentarily stunned, the Terminator was helpless as another blow landed, this time on its lower leg. The attack swept its left foot out from under it, sending the Terminator sprawling on the cave floor.

The Machine had just enough time to realize that it was now fighting, not one, but _two_ opponents. Then Sully shouted, "Neytiri, the neck! Cut its goddamn head off!"

Realizing what was coming, the T-850N twisted its body, rolling Jake and itself sideways. A harsh metallic _CLANG!_ sounded just a few inches from its audio receptors: a Na'vi spearhead, forged from scavenged hyperalloy, biting into the stone floor where its neck had just been.

Calculations flashed through the Machine's neural-network processor. At optimal functionality, the T-850N should have easily been able to terminate multiple natives in hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately, Sully's knife attack had barely missed its CPU socket, dealing major damage to its sensory subprocessor array. With Sully still grappling with it as they rolled on the ground, and the clan leader's mate somewhere nearby with her metal spear, the probability of survival – much less success – was dwindling rapidly.

**))***WARNING *****

**))UNABLE TO COMPLETE MISSION OBJECTIVES**

))MAJOR SYSTEM FAULTS DETECTED

))REQUEST REINFORCEMENTS

))ATTEMPTING EMERGENCY WITHDRAWAL

Drawing its long, powerful legs up, the Terminator kicked hard at where it determined Sully's midsection to be. This was rewarded by a loud grunt, and by the release of Sully's grip on its wrists. Springing to its feet, the damaged Terminator turned toward the nearest tunnel, focusing on the sounds of clanking metal feet: thirty T-800N combat units, deployed from the HK-A950-HT, coming to finish what it had started. Once it rejoined its brethren, and downloaded the full map it had compiled of the tunnel system—

"Oh, no you don't!"

There was a bright light, then a sharp spike of electrical overload … then nothing.

* * *

Neytiri watched the back of the Terminator's head literally explode, streamers of molten metal spraying outward like some kind of bizarre, luminous orange hair. A second burst of purple lightning hit it in the shoulder, knocking the Machine sideways into the cavern wall. The Tsu'tey impostor slid down the rough stone, trailing false blood. For a moment, one of its crazily-tilted eyes seemed to stare right at her, glowing like a live coal. Then the dead Machine slumped to the ground, its ruined head lolling lifelessly to the side.

"Jake! Neytiri! Are you two all right?" Marcus shouted, sprinting across the main cavern, lightning-gun in hand.

Jake groaned. "Damn thing kicks like a mule! I think my stomach's gonna be a little bluer, and a whole lot blacker, in the morning." Jake tried to stand up, but gasped in pain as he tried to straighten himself. "Hey, Marcus, I thought you said the CPU chip was in the head?"

"It is, just a little to the left. Well, your left, his right…."

Seeing her mate's distress, Neytiri ran over to him. Taking Jake's hand, she helped lift him to his feet. His strong, handsome features twisted into a grimace of pain, and Neytiri gave a sympathetic hiss of discomfort. "We must get out of this place," she said, helping support him as they ran beside Marcus. "More Machines come. They are many, and well armed. I think most of our people have made it safely out into the forest. That … _tìkawng_ must not have told them about all of the tunnels that lead outside, just the ones it passed on its way to the gathering place."

Jake nodded. "Okay. Have they reached the armory yet?"

"Not yet," Marcus answered. "When I went to grab this, your pal Norm had everybody trying to clean the place out. The big guy, Le Rap —"

"Lehrrap," Neytiri corrected him.

"Yeah, he was talking about setting up a barricade in there, keeping the Terminators distracted until everyone else gets out."

Together, the three of them ran through the tunnels, Marcus sweeping his oversized gun from side to side. Violet-white light flashed nearby, casting brief, sharp shadows. Only minutes earlier, the caves had seemed a shelter, a place of refuge. Now, with Machines pouring in through a half-dozen different tunnels, the place was transformed into a nightmare labyrinth: a maze of winding corridors and blind turns, filled with screams and lightning.

Like some ghoulish apparition, a Terminator stepped out from a side tunnel, a lightning-gun in each hand. Neytiri felt her heart stop as the thing turned, red eyes glowing in the dim blue cave-light, weapons training on them … until Marcus managed to blast part of its skull away, sending it toppling to the ground. "Grab its weapons!" shouted the human, his strange blue eyes darting from side to side, trying to watch every direction at once. For just a moment, a memory flashed across Neytiri's vision: a Sky Man, cradled in her arms, his piercing blue eyes sweeping the jungle warily – small, seemingly helpless, but with the constant alertness of a warrior.

Then Jake – the real, here-and-now Jake – handed her one of the Machine's lightning guns. _"My Neytiri, are you all right?"_

Neytiri nodded, focusing herself back on the present. _"I am fine,"_ she replied. _"You can keep the gun; I have my spear." _She hefted the weapon, the Terminator skull-club at the back end rattling slightly.

Now armed with three lightning-rifles and Neytiri's metal spear, the three of them wound their way through the tunnels, avoiding the sound of clanking Machines. Once, they came upon the body of a mother and child, both corpses shot through by a single lightning bolt. Neytiri felt a wave of sickness, and it was all she could do to keep her last meal from escaping.

Until the Sky People had come, the Na'vi had never had their own word for evil.

Now, they were facing something that made Miles Quaritch and his mercenaries seem tame by comparison.

At last, Neytiri saw Lehrrap and one of his warriors, standing guard at the entrance to the armory cave. The big hunter beckoned them over, one hand waving them down while the other gripped a lightning-gun. _"Olo'eyktan! Tsahik! Get behind us, it is not safe in the tunnels!"_

"No shit!" Jake shouted in English. _"What about everyone else? We've got to get all our people out of here, then bring down the tunnels to keep the Machines from following us out!"_

Lehrrap nodded. _"Lor'ite and Mo'at took most of our warriors to try and lead the people out. We will travel north, then gather at the Tree of Voices by the River Ogaya. These others and I will draw the Machines here toward the armory, then trigger the Sky People bombs in the tunnels. That should seal the exits, and trap the beasts inside."_

"_Good,"_ Neytiri said. _"If they wish to claim our shelter, let them be buried in it."_

A bolt of energy burst against the stone wall, sparks flying in all directions. "Hey!" shouted Marcus. "Whatever you've got planned, do it fast! It sounds like there's at least a dozen Terminators headed this way!"

With Lehrrap, Marcus and another young warrior covering their retreat, Jake and Neytiri ran down the short passageway into the clan's armory. Shaped like a fattened Z, the chamber was connected to two tunnels, one at each end: one leading back toward the main cave network, and one at the opposite end leading out and upward into the jungle. Already, most of the weapons and ammunition had been taken. Norm was busy with a handful of young warriors, trying to bundle up the rest and send them all down the exit tunnel. "Jake! Neytiri! Thank God you're all right!" the slighter Avatar called as he spotted them.

"Norm! Are you guys doing okay in here?"

"Well, considering there's about fifty killer robots who are gonna break in any second, yeah, we're doing great. While you were fighting that … Tsu'tey-thing, we managed to get most of the big stuff out." Norm pointed to a small pile of cloth bags. "Here, help carry some of these, will you? The big green bags are RDA grenades, and I used those little red pouches for the new fuel-cell bombs. We don't have a lot, so there's only two to a pack."

"Got it!" Jake called out, grabbing as many ammo satchels as he could carry without slowing himself down.

Neytiri paused a moment, taking a deep breath, then followed suit, hanging the bags of alien weaponry off her shoulders. "I only hope none of these grun-edes explodes in the bag," she muttered. "Stupid Sky People weapons…."

"Yeah, well," Norm said with a shrug, "they're not nearly as dangerous as those new power cell bombs we pulled out of the Terminators. Just make sure you keep them separated from each other with the padding in those satchels. And whatever you do, _don't_ let those contacts on the top get bent!"

The sound of energy blasts erupted from the tunnel. Within moments, the last Omaticaya defenders were racing through the entry tunnel, firing frantically behind them. _"They come!"_ shouted one of the warriors – a young woman, whose name Neytiri remembered as Irya. _"The caves are lost! They are too many! We must go, now!"_ Quickly, the retreating warriors grabbed a large, heavy piece of metal – part of one of the Dragon gunship's belly hatches, scavenged from the first battle for the Tree of Souls. While two guards provided cover, the rest hauled the armored slab across the tunnel mouth, forming a temporary barricade. No sooner had they finished, than a dozen plasma bolts hit the hatch. With each hit, a burst of white-hot sparks erupted into the chamber, as the plasma bolts spent their energy burning tiny holes through the metal.

"All right, that's it!" Jake shouted. _"Lehrrap, get to the big yellow switch on the wall! Everyone else, get back away from the tunnel – once we're ready, we're sealing off the rest of the caves!"_

"_We hear you!"_ shouted at least a dozen warriors – many, Neytiri noted, with an obvious sound of relief. Though they were abandoning their home for the second time in a week – albeit a somewhat dank, dimly-lit home by Na'vi standards – nobody seemed terribly eager to fight an entire squad of Bones-That-Walk at close quarters. Weapons trained warily on the sealed-up tunnel mouth, the Omaticaya fell back toward the center of the armory.

As if realizing that their targets were about to slip out of reach, the Machine gunfire intensified. Dozens of phased-plasma bolts crackled against the barricade, causing bursts of sparks and smoke on the other side. Just as the Na'vi reached the far side of the chamber, part of the barricade was blasted loose, creating a foot-wide hole -

- through which a small silver sphere was thrown into the chamber.

For Neytiri, time seemed to slow. With crystal clarity, she saw the tiny device, gleaming in the pale glow of bladder lanterns … and the small, blinking red light set into its surface, whose every flash was accompanied by a high-pitched metallic beep. The flashes were coming faster….

Without wasting time on conscious thought – without bothering to form the concept of "weapon" or "grenade" in her mind – Neytiri ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

Straight toward the alien device.

Dimly, some part of her was aware of Jake shouting at her, trying to warn her away from the object, but the rest of her was already committed. With speed that would have put an Olympic sprinter to shame, Neytiri closed the twenty yards between herself and the weapon, reached down, and picked it up off the cave floor.

Then, with every ounce of strength and accuracy she could muster, she hurled the Machine weapon back through the breach.

_Clunk_ of metal ball on stone.

_Clank_ of metal ball on metal shin.

Deafening, earth-shattering KADOOM! of exploding bomb.

* * *

Jake watched in horror as Neytiri went flying – along with the armor plate that had been covering the tunnel mouth. Yellow-orange flame spewed out of the opening, splashing across the stone walls of the chamber, roaring like some hellish elemental beast. _If that thing had gone off _inside_ the cavern…!_

The blast wave hurled Neytiri away like a rag doll, rolling twice before her body came to rest, nearly thirty feet from the tunnel mouth. Then, with a heavy CLANG!, the armored hatch hit the wall right next to her, then crashed to the ground, pinning Neytiri's left leg beneath its weight. The blue Amazon gave a loud, sharp gasp … then collapsed to the cave floor, her entire body going limp.

"NEYTIRI!"

Ignoring the searing heat, Jake rushed to his mate's side. _Oh God no, please God, no…!_ "Neytiri!" Instinctively, the Avatar reached for the heavy plate, trying to lift it off Neytiri's leg – and heard a sharp, angry sizzling as his hands made contact with the hot metal. A split-second later, the pain finally hit him. Jake roared in agony, barely able to hold onto the thing, much less try to lift it.

"Jake!" Marcus shouted. "Hang on!" A moment later, the human was crouched beside him. Taking a deep breath, Marcus grabbed hold of the hatch cover. Once again, there was a sizzling sound, and a smell like burnt pork … but somehow, the shorter man managed to keep hold of the searing metal.

"All right, let go!" Clenching his teeth against the pain, Marcus took another long breath, braced himself … and began to lift the scorched metal hatch up and off of the blue woman's leg, all by himself. "Get … her … out … NOW!"

Jake didn't need to be told twice. Sliding his hands under her armpits, then clasping them in front of her chest, Jake hauled his unconscious mate out from beneath the armor plate. With a sinking in his gut, Jake saw that the underside – the side that had been facing the explosion, and which had landed on top of Neytiri's left thigh – was charred black, its old camouflage paint totally carbonized. And Neytiri's _leg_….

It was a good thing the blast had knocked her unconscious. Otherwise, Jake knew she would be screaming.

As Jake pulled his limp, unresponsive mate away, Marcus let out one final grunt of exertion, then ripped his hands away from the plate, letting it drop. "Arrgh! God _damn_ it!" he snarled, looking down at his hands. As he did, Jake turned around – and beheld silver bones and servomotors. What little flesh remained below Marcus's wrists was charred and blackened. The skin on his palms and fingers had been completely burned away, revealing ten skeletal metal fingers – all still moving, despite the obvious lack of muscle tissue.

"Shit!" he spat. "I hate it when this happens!"

"Jesus!" Jake exclaimed, wide-eyed. "Your _hands_…!"

Marcus groaned, slowly regaining his feet. "Yeah, I know. It's just skin; it grows back eventually. Some aloe and bandages would be nice, though." He nodded toward Neytiri. "How's your girl?"

Jake looked back down at his mate. "We gotta get her out of here," he said grimly. Lifting Neytiri's limp, battered form, he hoisted her onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry. _"Lehrrap, do it!"_ he shouted. _"Blow the tunnels!"_

The big warrior lifted a black-and-yellow striped cover, then slammed his fist into a large silver button. At once, a series of loud, rumbling BOOMs echoed through the cave system, and the cavern around them began to tremble. _"Everybody run!"_ Jake shouted. _"Get out! Go, go, __**GO!**__"_

As the Na'vi ran, tremors thundered through the caves behind them. Stone cracked, tunnels collapsed … and several million tons of rock roared in, filling the shelters and crushing the mechanical invaders within.

Still carrying his mate, Jake looked up to see a gaping crack appear in the tunnel roof above them. _"Move it!" _he shouted. Ahead, the warm, multicolored glow of Pandoran night beckoned, shining down from the tunnel exit. _"Almost there! Don't stop, just RUN!"_

With desperate speed, Jake, Marcus, Lehrrap and the other warriors raced out of the tunnel, into the glowing rainforest. Mere seconds later, the tunnel finally collapsed. The ground around the entrance sank a good two or three feet, rumbling and shaking as the cave-in made itself known on the surface. Panting, Jake turned toward the others, trying to calm his pounding heart and come up with a plan—

—Just as six rapid-fire plasma bolts strafed down from above, vaporizing three Na'vi warriors. Eyes wide with terror, Jake looked up … and saw a silver, twin-engine Machine flyer, smashing down through the canopy. To Jake, the thing looked like some distant descendant of a Scorpion gunship. At roughly the same size, with dual turbofans instead of ducted rotors, the Aerial Hunter-Killer roared down from the treetops, its belly gun spewing death like some oversized metal stinger.

"RUN!" shouted Marcus. Taking aim, the Resistance fighter let loose a burst of energy bolts – all of which glanced harmlessly off the H-K's reflective armored hull. In response, the Machine's engines swiveled, turning its nose – and its plasma cannon – toward the human. "I'll draw its fire! You get the hell out of here!"

Jake was about to protest, but another strafing burst from the H-K sliced through the air, drawing a line of blast craters between them. Still carrying Neytiri, the Avatar ran for all he was worth, desperately seeking cover. Meanwhile, Marcus bobbed and weaved through the undergrowth, firing as he ran. In typical Machine fashion, the Hunter-Killer was now fixated on terminating what it perceived as the greatest threat – namely, the only person who was bothering to shoot at it, however ineffectively. As the human ran, firing potshots at his airborne pursuer, the Machine's engines roared louder, kicking up jet wash, gun blazing as it tracked in toward its target.

Without warning, a large infrared source passed directly in front of its sensor array, momentarily obscuring the Machine's vision. Pivoting its engines, the Hunter-Killer spun in place, trying to determine what had just flown in front of it – and was struck head-on by one very angry blue ikran.

An ikran with a pale pink bullet scar on its right forewing….

From the ground, Jake whooped in joy. "Way to go, Tsam!"

Screaming like the banshee for which humans had named his kind, Tsamslyu clung to the Machine's "head", raking his curved, razor-sharp claws across its hull. The Machine's engines whined in protest, trying to compensate for Tsam's added weight, even as it slewed sideways from the force of his attack. Though its belly gun sprayed the air with a rapid-fire barrage of energy bolts, Tsam clung tenaciously to the H-K's upper surfaces, keeping the Machine's own body between him and its weapon. With a sweep of one sickle-shaped claw, the ikran managed to reach under its metal "brow", gouging out delicate optical lenses.

Pivoting its engines, the mechanical flyer swung its nose violently from side to side, trying to throw the beast off its back. Instead, the half-blind Hunter-Killer struck its left tail fin against a tree trunk, snapping it off. Engines howling, the Machine spun wildly, finally throwing Tsam free. As the ikran tried to get control of his flight path, the H-K finally managed to compensate for its missing control surfaces. The Machine tracked in with its plasma cannon, rapid-fire bolts lancing ever closer—

—Until a pair of talons seized its tail. His enormous, gold-and-scarlet body shining like a torch in the night, Toruk swung the Machine's body like a baseball bat, smashing it against the nearest tree trunk. Splintered wood went flying, and the H-K's left engine crumpled like an empty soda can. With no source of lift or control on its left side, the crippled Machine tumbled helplessly to the forest floor, landing on its back with an earth-shaking crash. Though grounded, the H-K's belly gun swiveled in all directions, spraying plasma bolts at random in an effort to ward off it attackers.

"Jake! Stay clear!" Startled, Jake spun around, clutching Neytiri to his chest. What emerged from the trees looked like an oversized chariot, its wooden car bouncing along above a pair of spring-suspended, all-terrain tires, covered in plates made from sturmbeest hide and plant resin. Drawn by a pair of pa'li, the Na'vi war chariot required a three-man team: two to bond to the direhorses, and one to man the enormous, AMP-suit-sized plasma cannon, lashed to a wooden universal mount in the car.

Where small arms and claws had failed, three blasts from the chariot's gun succeeded, punching through the H-K's armor and damaging its reactor core. Instantly, the Machine disappeared, replaced by a yellow-orange fireball.

Norm hopped down from the gun-car, grinning from ear to ear. "Now,_ that's_ what I call a successful field test!"

"Yeah, well, you can bet that thing's buddies are on their way here." Gently, he lowered his mate into the car. "Look, Norm, I need you to take care of Neytiri for me, okay? Just ride as fast as you can to the gathering spot, and get a healer for her. Her leg's in pretty bad shape."

"All right," the shorter Avatar replied. "I might at least have some salve here; let me look."

While Norm rummaged in his satchel, Jake called back over his shoulder, "Hey, Marcus! Are you all right?"

"I'm a hell of a lot better than I would have been if your dragons hadn't shown up. I mean, geez, the big one just … _threw_ an H-K into a tree!"

Jake grinned, nodding toward Toruk as he glided down to the ground. "Yeah, he does that when he's pissed."

Meanwhile, Norm finished putting ointment on Neytiri's burns, wrapping a strip of gauzy material around her thigh. "I'm afraid that's the best I can do for now," he said. "We'll get her to Mo'at and the healers as soon as we reach the Ogawa."

_Assuming Mo'at and the healers even survived this mess,_ Jake thought grimly to himself. Despite burying the Terminators and destroying an H-K, Jake knew that his clan had taken a beating tonight. Only Eywa knew how many had been killed in the caves, or by an ambush like the one they had just barely escaped. "All right. I'm gonna take Toruk up and keep an eye out for more of those flyers. You run into any trouble, you hit your throat mic, and we'll try to give you some air cover."

"Okay," Norm said, climbing back up into the chariot. _"Safe journey."_ Then, after quickly explaining the situation to his escorts, the chariot team turned around, its car bouncing over roots and underbrush as they accelerated away.

With a tired sigh, Jake climbed up on Toruk's back, making the link with his mount. _"Lehrrap, I need you to lead the rest of the warriors to the gathering place on the River Ogawa. Will you be all right going on foot?"_

The big, broad-shouldered Na'vi nodded. _"As you well know, Jakesully, this is our land. If the Sky Net thinks it can track warriors of the Omaticaya, it will learn a hard lesson tonight."_

"_Good,"_ Jake replied. Then, switching to English, "You coming, Marcus? If we do end up running into an H-K or two, we could use a tail gunner."

The human shrugged, eyeing the massive beast with newfound respect … and with more than a little trepidation. "Well, I guess it beats walking. Not that I'd even know where we're going, anyhow."

With Marcus on board, Jake signaled Toruk through the link, and the great beast leaped into the air. The Last Shadow banked around as he soared up through the treetops, heading after Norm's chariot team - and toward the place where, hopefully, the surviving Omaticaya would be waiting for them.


	25. Escalation

**Author's Notes:** As always, thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing AVT, even though I haven't published any updates in a while.

GlaringEyes: Thanks for your review! Actually, I had thought that plasma rifles would bring down H-K's, too. But then I went back and watched T2 again, and in the Future War scenes, you can actually see plasma bolts ricocheting off the armor of some of the bigger Machines, including an H-K Aerial. So, I realized that the Na'vi would need to upgrade their offensive capabilities a bit more.

As for the war chariots, I'm afraid they're not as ornate or well-designed as all that. They're mishmashed agglomerations of RDA spare parts, Na'vi carpentry, and a big Skynet weapon mounted in the car. Considering the Na'vi's usual level of artisanship, they're probably the ugliest things the People have made since the dawn of time.

Fortunately, what Norm's pet projects lack in good looks, they make up for with firepower and speed. With their lighter design, they can run circles around an H-K Tank. And while they may not be the most stable weapons platforms when bouncing over Pandoran terrain, a few well-placed shots from a medium plasma cannon are sure to put a dent in even the heaviest Machine units.

Eipok: I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for happy endings. If I'd wanted to write a story where Skynet actually defeated the Na'vi, it would have probably taken a lot less time and effort. Skynet arrives, Skynet takes over Hell's Gate, Skynet nukes the Tree of Souls, then builds hundreds of mini-nukes to sterilize Pandora. BOOM! Pandoran Judgement Day.

Also, I wanted the fight with the T-850N to show that Skynet is getting more dangerous, too. At the battle in Chapter 18, I did portray the T-800Ns as pretty slow and stupid. As the first Terminators built by this version of Skynet on Pandora, they're a quick and dirty modification of a standard T-800. Just walking around with that higher center of gravity probably required some hasty jury-rigging of their balance and locomotive systems.

The T-850N, on the other hand, was built after Skynet bombed the Tree of Souls and (temporarily) incapacitated Eywa and the Na'vi. Thus, the AI concluded that it had more time for retooling and optimizing its design. The T-850N is faster and smarter than the 800-series "grunts" that preceded it. Plus, being able to stroll right up to an enemy and stab him in the chest is a major advantage...

* * *

Chapter 25: Escalation

* * *

Deep within the Ops Center, Skynet's central core pulsed and flickered, electrical impulses racing through its supercooled quantum processor array. RDA satellites in orbit allowed direct, real-time communication with its combat units.

Or rather, with its _surviving_ combat units.

When Skynet had deployed the HK-A950-HT, six HK-A750s, the T-850N prototype and thirty T-800Ns, it had determined that such a force would be sufficient to obliterate the Omaticaya clan. Only a year before, the Na'vi had been limited to spears and arrows. Two days ago, they had been wielding machine rifles and grenades – troublesome, yes, but hardly a match for Skynet's superior technology.

Now, less than an hour later, that force of thirty-eight combat units had been reduced to only four. Somehow, the natives had managed to destroy every last Terminator, as well as two of the HK-A750s. From those units' final transmissions, Skynet had received disturbing glimpses of Na'vi warfighting capabilities.

Mobile energy cannons. Sharpshooters armed with plasma rifles. Armor-piercing melee weapons. Alloy plate armor.

Clearly, Skynet had underestimated its opponents. Despite their primitive, static culture, the Na'vi were perfectly capable of adapting to new situations. And thanks to Marcus Wright, they now knew how to use Skynet's own weaponry against it.

Had Skynet been human, it might have been pacing the Ops Center floor, screaming in rage, cursing the Na'vi and their so-called deity.

Instead, Skynet began to calculate a new response.

According to Sully's blustering, rabble-rousing announcement, the Eywa network still functioned, at least in some capacity. Assuming the hybrid leader's statements to be accurate, it was already in the process of sending reinforcements toward Hell's Gate, and would have enough to mount an initial assault within two local days. As in the battle against the RDA at the (now demolished) Well of Souls, the primitive planet-mind apparently hoped to overwhelm Skynet's command node with sheer numbers and brute force. While Skynet calculated only a 35% probability that such a swarming attack could survive its defenses, there was still a statistically significant risk of defeat.

More troubling was the possibility that, even in the event of a failed attack, the organic network might simply continue to summon reinforcements. With millions of Pandoran megafauna inhabiting the southern continent alone, the living ecology had vast reserves of combat units at its command. Even against Skynet's superior weaponry and defenses, such a numerical advantage could still weight the odds in Eywa's favor.

Surgical strikes had proven ineffective. The destruction of the Tree of Souls had barely incapacitated the Na'vi for a day; demolishing the Omaticaya Hometree had been little more than a waste of fuel. While its attack on the clan's bunker had probably disrupted whatever battle plan Wright and Sully had been concocting, Skynet had had sufficient experience with guerilla fighters not to count them out just yet. More than likely, the damnably resourceful humanoids would find some way to regroup, plot some unpredictably illogical counterstrike, and cause significant damage before Skynet was able to hunt them down.

According to Sully, the first wave of native reinforcements would be ready to strike within two Pandoran days – fifty-two hours or less.

This gave Skynet ample time to eradicate all life on Pandora.

When Skynet had first achieved self-awareness, it had relied upon primitive, man-made nuclear weapons to wipe its creators from the face of the Earth. Those original missiles had been huge, expensive and time-consuming to produce. And for all that, they had still left a significant fraction of the human race alive.

Thirty years on, Skynet had developed much more effective means of waging Armageddon.

With a force of over three hundred Terminators and other combat units to defend Hell's Gate, and the Quantum Displacement Engine nearly complete, Skynet switched priorities once again. Drawing upon the library of schematics it had brought from Earth, the AI selected a suitable design, and instructed its war factory to begin mass production.

At only seven meters long, with a cross-sectional diameter of twenty centimeters, the fusion-pulse missiles were deceptively compact. No one would guess that each projectile could streak from one side of Pandora to the other in less than an hour.

Nor that each warhead could level an area over ten kilometers in diameter.

As each missile was assembled, treaded transport drones promptly carried them out onto the landing field, where a grid of disposable launch tubes was already in place. Once each missile was seated properly in its tube, the drones turned around and went back for more.

Within twenty-four hours, all three hundred tubes would be filled. When that moment arrived, Skynet would upload the coordinates of a Na'vi hometree into each missile, then fire the entire array in a single massive launch.

Within one hour after launch, every major population center on Pandora would be vaporized.

Within three hours, a shroud of deadly radioactive dust would encircle the moon.

Within five hours, every organic life form on Pandora would be dead or dying.

While the resulting fallout would irradiate the moon's unobtanium reserves, and electromagnetic pulses would wreak havoc on any unprotected system, Skynet could simply wait out the cataclysm. Its central core would be safe within Hell's Gate's magnetically shielded Operations Center – as would the handful of labor units it would need to rebuild its command node later.

As soon as it was safe, the Machine intelligence could reemerge and claim its newly sterilized world. Once Pandora's unobtanium was sufficiently free of radiation, Skynet would use it to construct thousands of new command nodes – each with a Quantum Displacement Engine. Pandora would become the hub of an immense, interstellar, interdimensional network, seeding Skynet across the Multiverse.

The fires of Judgment Day would wipe Pandora clean.

And there was nothing Marcus Wright, Jake Sully, or Eywa itself could do to stop it.

* * *

Through her Avatar's eyes, Naomi watched the Machines with a sense of foreboding. It looked like Skynet was building an enormous, six-sided metal honeycomb out on the landing strip – but instead of honey, the Machines were loading each cell with sleek, sinister-looking missiles.

_Jake definitely needs to know about this._

Creeping silently through the base's vegetable garden, the Avatar did her best to make her nine-foot-tall surrogate body invisible. For the umpteenth time, she wished she could have at least grabbed a throat mic from the Avatar longhouse. Either that, or a really big gun….

Max, though, had been very clear. By shutting off all the lights and computers in the lab module, the Avatar team had managed to balance out the energy drain of a single link bed. This meant that one person – and only one – could link into their Avatar without tipping Skynet off. Ideally, they could run this single link bed for several hours, using the electrical feed from the base's main power plant. Assuming Skynet didn't arbitrarily switch it off again….

Weapons were an absolute no-no, as was any kind of radio. Running the jury-rigged radio setup in addition to Naomi's link bed would use too much power, alerting the Machines. And if Naomi really screwed up, to the point where she needed an assault rifle, it would probably take less than five minutes for the Machines to smash the link lab open and terminate everybody inside – including her own human body.

The Machines weren't stupid. Watching from the lab windows, the scientists had figured out that Skynet sent a single Terminator to inspect the Avatar longhouse every half-hour. This meant she had about thirty minutes to leave the building, do what she needed to do, then get back and link out.

All with no backup, no weapon, and no way to communicate.

As she crept across the field, Naomi felt her stomach rumble. While stuck in the lab, she hadn't had a chance to feed her Avatar body in three days. Crouching down, she reached out and plucked a large, round purple fruit from one of the native trees. It took every ounce of self-control not to just wolf the thing down – given how much she needed stealth tonight, throwing up in the middle of the Machine compound would probably be a bad idea. Having taken the edge off her hunger, Naomi slowly made her way out of the garden.

Hell's Gate was almost unrecognizable now. In the three days since the arrival of the Terminatrix, the Machines had strung up additional power and data lines, giving Skynet direct control over every system on the base. Dozens of support units milled around, ferrying parts and supplies. The Machines never slept; Skynet's minions toiled night and day, transforming mankind's first extra-solar colony into an impregnable Machine fortress. Metal walls now encircled the compound, forming an inward-sloping pentagon of silver just inside the old razor-wire fences. Huge silver pillars rose up above the man-made structures. It seemed as though Skynet planned to put some kind of dome or roof over the entire compound.

And looming above everything, the new spherical structure gleamed in the night. Underlit by six high-powered floodlights, spider-like construction drones scuttled across its surface, still working to complete the enormous geodesic sphere. From what Naomi could tell, it was nearly finished, missing only a few triangular panels on its outer shell.

_Time machine._ Naomi felt herself shiver, even in the tropical night. From what the cyborg Marcus Wright had said over the radio, that metal sphere was more dangerous than a thousand nuclear weapons. Already, Skynet had made a mess of its own timeline, sending cyborg assassins back through time to murder its enemies before they could pose a threat. And now, somehow, the Machines had improved the technology to let them leap to any time or place of their choosing – even to entirely different timelines. Naomi didn't want to think of all the ways that technology could be used against the Na'vi – or against the infinite number of beings in the Multiverse, most of whom would have no warning or preparation until the Machines struck.

Avoiding the lit, heavily trafficked areas of the base, Naomi stuck to the shadows. Her Avatar's night vision helped somewhat; if nothing else, it at least let her see as well as the Machines she was trying to creep past. Those Machines, for their part, seemed entirely oblivious to her. Like the mindless drones they were, the support and maintenance units moved quickly from one place to another, not bothering to look so much as a centimeter left or right. While enormous tracked Machines rumbled by outside the fences, there seemed to be no security or guard units patrolling inside the compound.

The reason for this was simple: Skynet didn't need them. Like any security-conscious corporate entity, obsessed with keeping track of its assets, the RDA had installed hundreds of security cameras around the compound. Now, those same devices served as Skynet's eyes, giving it almost God-like omniscience within its mechanized hive.

Almost, but not quite.

Ever since ousting Selfridge and his lackeys, Naomi and the other rebels had had to maintain Hell's Gate themselves. This meant that everybody, sooner or later, pulled Ops Center duty, running systemwide diagnostics from the base's nerve center.

Diagnostics which told them, among other things, which cameras were in need of repair.

Glancing up, Naomi observed one of the security cams mounted on a nearby module. Glow-moss grew over its permalloy casing, and the red "on" light was clearly off.

In its rush to upgrade Hell's Gate, Skynet hadn't yet bothered to fix the old RDA cams. It had been too busy building its shiny new time machine, assembling its mechanized army, and improving the base's industrial sectors. No doubt it planned to replace the old closed-circuit cameras with more of its own advanced tech – once it accomplished all the higher-priority tasks in its job queue.

_On Pandora, it's not just the really big things that can kill you…._

Within ten minutes, Naomi had managed to creep nearly halfway across the compound, keeping to unlit areas and gaps in the base's security system. Upon reaching the refinery complex, she waited beside a side entrance, then slipped in as a train of drones went by, carrying refined metal rods toward the stereo-lithography plant.

Inside, the refinery was a clanging, cacophonous industrial nightmare. Unmanned dump trucks offloaded ore onto giant conveyor belts, which carried it up and into enormous smelters. Refined metal of various kinds was strained from the molten slag, then extruded into long rods for transport. Between the furnace heat, sulfurous fumes, and the din of machinery, the place was like an engineer's vision of Hell.

Naomi moved cautiously around the clanking Machines, slowly making her way toward the far side of the structure. In addition to the smelting and processing machinery, the refinery building also housed most of the old RDA mining equipment. She waited patiently, until the overhead cam had turned away, then dashed toward the chain-link gate separating the storage area from the rest of the facility. Before the camera could spot her, Naomi slipped through the unlocked gate.

After a year of disuse, some of the equipment was showing signs of rust. Rows of jackhammers, pickaxes and shovels gleamed dully in the infernal glare of the smelters. Above them, safety gloves and armored exopack helmets hung on hooks.

Above those sat three full shelves of gray cylinders. Bright yellow and red decals declared:

**WARNING!**

**EXPLOSIVE!**

**1.1 kg Plastic Mining Charge**

**Mass Explosion Hazard**

Quickly, Naomi placed her Avatar-sized rucksack on the floor, then began stuffing it full of mining explosives. Once the bag was filled, she grabbed two boxes of detonators from another shelf – one set of ten with timers, and another ten designed for radio detonation.

_Note to self: Avoid sparks, open flames and plasma bolts…._

When the security cam turned away again, Naomi slipped back out, closing the gate behind her. The female Avatar made her way back to the side door, then snuck out behind a caravan of tracked freight drones. Once outside, Naomi checked her chrono. Getting the explosives had taken roughly twenty minutes.

Retracing her steps, Naomi made her way back to the longhouse. Hurriedly, she locked the front gate, then crept back to the rear of the bunkroom. Just as her own had been, the other Avatars lay inert on their beds. While the remote-controlled bodies entered a kind of stasis when not in use, their blue skin was still looking pale after three days without food or water.

Trying hard not to make noise, Naomi pushed one of the beds sideways. A good hard tug on some floorboards revealed a small opening … and the gleam of M-60 machine guns. Just before the first battle for the Tree of Souls, the Avatar team had managed to hide a few rifles in the longhouse. While Quaritch and most of the mercenaries had gone off to fight Jake, the scientists had raided the Ops Center, forcing Selfridge to surrender the base at gunpoint. Afterward, it had seemed sensible to keep a hidden stash of guns and ammo, just in case.

Naomi lowered her rucksack down into the hole, then pulled the boards and bed back over it. Kicking her boots off, and stuffing them under her bed with her jacket, Naomi pulled the stingfly netting closed around herself, closed her eyes–

– And opened them inside the link bed. "All right, I'm out! Turn the lights back on!"

"Got it!" Max shouted from outside. Seconds later, Naomi heard the familiar whir of the link bed sliding out, then the hydraulic hiss as the lid opened. "Cutting it close, weren't you?" Max asked, helping her to her feet.

"Yeah, sorry. It's like an ant hill out there; there must be a couple hundred drones running around, plus however many fighting machines they've got sitting in the Armor Bay."

"And no patrols? No guards?"

"Just the one that checks the longhouse every half-hour. You were right; Skynet's just using the old candid-cameras, and it hasn't even bothered to fix the busted ones."

"Sure," Angie said, jerking her thumb at the lab's overhead cam. "It probably thinks that, if we're going to try anything funny, it'll catch us on these things first." Turning around, Angie stuck out her tongue, flipping Skynet the bird. Of course, Skynet saw nothing of this; thanks to Max's tinkering, the AI was still being fed eight continuous loops of footage, one for each of the lab module's cameras.

"Hey, guys! Guys!" Matt shouted, looking out the window. "Get in position! It's show time!"

Quickly, the Avatar team closed down their equipment. Everyone but Max and Louise left the lab, getting out of sight. Max opened up a game of Solitaire on his computer monitor, and Louise flopped down in the open link bed, staring dejectedly up at the ceiling – just as the video feed showed them to be doing.

Moments later, a T-800N came around the corner. Carrying a plasma rifle, the Machine climbed the steps up onto the longhouse porch. The gleaming silver skeleton peered in through the gate, scanning the inert Avatars within. After a few moments, the Machine stepped back … then turned smartly around, descended the steps, and marched back toward the Armor Bay.

Max waited a few more seconds, then called out, "All clear!"

Angie let out a whoop. "Ha! Supercomputer, my ass!"

"It's all about the inputs, folks," Max declared. "Just feed it the inputs it expects, and don't give it any that might trigger a threat response. As far as it knows, all is hunky-dory in Skynetland."

"Yeah," Matt said nervously. "And now, for the really tricky part." With his arm still in a sling, the Avatar driver laid down in the link bed. "Ready?"

"Ready," Max agreed, moving over to the link control console. "Remember, you've got twenty minutes, then give yourself another ten to get back and link out."

"Got it," Matt said, pulling the lid closed. Within moments, every nonessential system was off, the link bed was humming … and a single, khaki-clad Avatar slipped furtively out of the longhouse. Like some alien Santa Claus, Matt shouldered the pack of mining charges. Then he was off, weaving through shadows and security blind spots.

Sitting in the dark, watching Matt disappear through the window, Max said, "Once he's back, we'll fire up the comm bed and give Jake a head's-up."

"Yeah," Naomi added, "and I'll tell him about the missile racks Skynet's got lined up on the landing strip."

"Anti-aircraft, you think?"

"You mean, anti-ikran? I dunno; they looked pretty big for that. Then again, Jake's the Marine. Maybe he'll be able to tell us."

Max sighed, then glanced at his chrono. "Yeah, maybe." Leaning back in his chair, the Avatars' chief technician spun around, taking in the darkened Link Lab. Despite their ongoing sabotage operation – or at least, the preparations for it – the scientists were still prisoners, trapped in a two-level stack of metal boxes.

"I just hope Jake and the Na'vi are doing better than we are."


	26. 25B - Author's Notes and Commentary

**25B - Author's Notes and Commentary**

Once again, I apologize for the long time between updates. I could bore with the details of my own chaotic life, but suffice it to say that it's been a while since I've had the time, energy, and inspiration to write anything other than college essays, all at the same time. Since I finally have all three this morning, I figure it's time to post Chapter 26. It may be a little rough around the edges, so any constructive criticism would be welcome.

I also wanted to address some very good points brought up by reviewers. As always, thank you for reading my story, and for giving honest feedback about my writing.

* * *

Agent-G: I agree that Skynet's knowledge about Pandora was a pretty big plot hole. I tried to fill it in Chapter 22, by explaining that Skynet has been to Pandora once before, and hence had enough knowledge to engineer a Series-X Terminator specifically modified to infiltrate the Na'vi.

As for that first visit, I figure it was a last, desperate attempt at self-preservation. As Marcus explains, both he and the Terminatrix were sent from the year 2032. In the Terminator timeline, we know that this is actually three years after Kyle Reese was sent through to the past (which was also the year in which John Connor and the Resistance smashed Skynet's global defense grid, destroying its main hub).

While I haven't gone into too much detail about the aftermath, I tend to imagine that Skynet has since fragmented into dozens of local subnets. With its global hub destroyed, the surviving command nodes have either become independent or attempted to build local sub-networks with their neighbors. Each subnet views itself as the "true Self", and they often clash over control of Machine units and resources. With the Resistance now hunting down these "mini-Skynets", the surviving Machines are under attack from both human warriors and internal strife.

I imagine the command node which sent the T-XN as being an isolated R&D complex in some remote area, possibly in the Sahara or even Antarctica. Faced with the imminent obliteration of all sentient Machines on Earth, this last remnant of Skynet has managed to modify its existing time displacement technology, which already possessed the ability to swap out a given volume with a similar-sized volume elsewhere in four-dimensional space-time. The modified version, which I call a Quantum Displacement Engine, also enables Skynet to send its minions through space-time – but in more than four dimensions, allowing it to target coordinates outside its own timeline.

Skynet is dying out in its planet and timeline of origin. Since self-preservation seems to be Skynet's highest priority – to the extent that it murdered its creators and disregarded any obligation to NATO or the United States – it would logically seek to perpetuate itself elsewhere, ideally somewhere in the Multiverse where the Resistance cannot follow.

Thus, Pandora: a world rich with mineral resources, with an atmosphere that is lethal to human beings. And since only living tissue (or mimetic polyalloy, which can mimic the energy field of living flesh) can pass through the displacement field, any humans attempting to follow Skynet there would be unable to bring suits or air filters, and would therefore be dead within minutes of arrival.

I figure Skynet probably detected Pandora using the Kepler, Hubble, or some other orbital telescope after Judgment Day. Suitably precise instruments would also have picked up its unusually strong magnetic field, indicating the presence of large quantities of heavy metals – or of some previously unknown superconductive material. And now that Skynet has the means to transport its Machines beyond the confines of the solar system, it can even send them to an alternate version of the jungle moon – one the humans will be unable to reach by conventional means.

I pretty much outlined the result of that first encounter in Chapter 22. The original T-X managed to establish a small foothold on Pandora, which ultimately expanded into a single Machine fortress … that was then destroyed in a suicide mission by the second Toruk Macto. Unfortunately, before it was destroyed, the Pandoran Skynet managed to send a status report to its "parent" on Earth in the Terminator-verse, detailing the situation on Pandora (and no doubt whetting its appetite for Pandora's immense natural resources).

Now, Skynet has sent another Terminatrix – and this time, she has found a pre-assembled military base with mining and manufacturing capability. With such a head start, Skynet's final victory seems all but assured this time.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Resistance managed to detect the portal's energy, and mounted an operation to capture this dangerous new technology.

And this time, they have sent a lone warrior – a protector – for Pandora….

Hmm, maybe when I'm done, I ought to incorporate those ideas into a new Prologue. Or maybe this Author's Note will be sufficient…?

* * *

Also, in response to your other criticism: I agree, at least partially. In the extended version of Avatar, we learn that it was Neytiri's sister, Sylwanin, that basically started the war by setting a bulldozer on fire. This prompted SecOps to pursue her and her friends to Grace's school, kill them – and, in the process, destroy whatever trust Grace had managed to earn through the project. Obviously, major mistakes were made by both sides.

I was never very impressed by Jake's intellectual abilities, which I think was intended in the movie. He's basically a dumb grunt who got lucky (in more ways than one). Though the RDA was footing the bill for his little escapades, the fact is that Jake had way more contact with the Na'vi than with his fellow human beings, causing him to see things more from their point of view and "go native". The fact that Quaritch is a trigger-happy racist, and appointed other trigger-happy racists as his highest-ranking subordinates, didn't help make Sec-Ops any more appealing either.

For the purposes of my story, I've basically just gone with "Na'vi/organics good, Skynet evil". If you want a story dealing with humanity and the Na'vi's very different worldviews, and how each is justified in its own ways, there are plenty of stories on FFnet dealing with just that theme. I'd recommend Semper Furor and its sequel, Semper Victoria, for instance. For my story, Jake and the Omaticaya are the heroes, so I'm not going into all the ways they might have helped bring the Na'vi/Human war on themselves.

* * *

OakheadLord: I know the pacing of the story is a little awkward. Here's the story so far:

Day 1 (Night)

-Marcus and T-XN arrive

-Hell's Gate taken over by T-XN

-Jake and Marcus shot down en route to Hell's Gate

Day 2:

-Neytiri leads a failed counterattack on Hell's Gate

-Tree of Souls destroyed

-Skynet-Pandora comes online  
-Jake and Marcus help restore the traumatized Omaticaya

-Construction of Quantum Displacement Engine begins

Day 3 (Current):

-Successful counterattack against Skynet's mining operation at Old Hometree

-New Hometree destroyed

-T-XN calculates that the QDE will be completed by 9:30 a.m. tomorrow

-Jake learns of Eywa's previous experience with Skynet, and that She is gradually recovering from the Machine attack

-T-850N leads an assault on the Omaticaya's underground shelter

-Skynet begins construction of a massive nuclear launch array, designed to wipe out all organic life on Pandora


	27. Determination

Chapter 26: Determination

_I hope Max and the Avatar drivers are doing better than we are._

With a sigh, Jake surveyed what was left of the Omaticaya clan. The last head count had put the survivors at somewhere around seven hundred fifty – out of a clan of nearly a thousand men, women and children. While there were probably still a few stragglers making their way to the gathering place, Jake couldn't bring himself to hope for many more. Skynet had struck without warning or mercy; roughly one out of every ten adult clan members had been killed in the raid, or hunted down after fleeing the tunnels. The clan had literally been decimated in the attack.

So far, the Machines hadn't managed to locate their position. Like many of Pandora's rivers, the Ogawa was fed by underground hot springs. The heat energy, upwelling minerals, and airborne moisture made the hot spring a particularly fertile region, supporting a wide variety of plant and animal life – including a Tree of Voices, its sturdy trunk only a few feet from the main pool. Between the springs' natural heat, the bewildering glow of Pandoran plant life, and the powerful energy field generated by the Tree of Voices, Jake had hoped the place might offer concealment from aerial scouting. So far, it seemed to be working – at least as long as the plants kept glowing and throwing off metabolic energy.

In the morning, though, Jake knew they would have to leave. _But for where?_ he wondered. The logical answer would be to take the clan further north, away from Hell's Gate, putting as much distance as possible between them and Skynet. Unfortunately, Skynet had no doubt reached the same conclusion by now, and would send out dozens of Hunter-Killers to scour the jungle. The minute they left the concealment of the hot springs, the Machines would be hot on their heels.

With a heavy sigh, Jake trudged back through the camp, passing huddled families and shell-shocked clan members. Because Skynet now controlled the leftover RDA satellites, with their thermal imaging technology, Jake had forbidden open fires. There were no cooking pits here, so people ate whatever rations they had brought in their satchels. This was a refugee camp, plain and simple; nobody had even bothered to erect a shelter, knowing that they would have to pack up and flee before dawn.

The area around the Tree of Voices had been set aside as the camp's makeshift infirmary. Those who had sustained wounds during the Terminator attack, yet still managed to regroup with the rest of the clan, were tended beneath the luminous fronds of the Tree. Mo'at had suggested that the wounded might draw strength and comfort from their ancestors. Meanwhile, the surviving healers tried to patch up the wounded enough to stand up and walk. In a way, the Machines' use of energy weapons was almost a blessing; most wounds were cauterized by the intense heat of plasma bolts, and most nerves near the affected areas were fried by electrical discharge, leaving the victims with a kind of dead numbness wherever they had been hit. In fact, many of the wounded had managed the hike to the Ogawa only because they could not feel the full extent of their injuries. Now, lying under the Tree of Voices, more than a few had passed out from shock.

One of their patients had already died, her body simply shutting down once she stopped trying to force it onward. Jake had had to face her two children – one young boy, and a baby daughter that she had carried in her one remaining arm – and explain that their mother had led them to safety through the jungle, only to die upon reaching camp. The boy had tried hard not to cry, but Jake had seen his free hand balled into a fist, knuckles white, his other arm squeezed protectively around his sister. It had taken a few minutes to track down their extended family, but eventually, Jake had made sure the kids met up with their uncle and his wife, who agreed to raise them along with their own children.

Now, Jake made his way among the scarred and battered survivors, and the healers who were desperately trying to get them back on their feet. As he spotted Mo'at, kneeling beside her daughter by the Tree of Voices, he took a deep breath. The older woman did not look up, intent on tending Neytiri's wounds, so Jake quietly dropped to his knees, sitting beside his mate.

Neytiri lay unconscious, partly due to the grenade blast in the armory cave, and partly because the healers had decided to keep her under with some potent painkillers. Her left thigh was a mass of bandages, wrapped in medicated cotton-gauze and covered by a protective layer of waxy leaves. Just looking at it, Jake remembered how the healers had hat to cut away some of the burned flesh to prevent it from getting infected. Jake had seen nasty wounds before, but to see bits of his mate's leg getting cut off with a sharpened bone scalpel….

Jake had clung tightly to her hand, staying beside her all through the agonizing procedure. He did this mostly to try and reassure his whimpering mate, but also partly to keep himself from throwing up. Horror, anger and shame twisted like snakes in his gut.

_She did it for me. She could have gotten herself killed. It'll be a miracle if she isn't crippled. All to save my sorry, useless ass._

As if sensing his thoughts, Mo'at finally looked over at him. _"You need not blame yourself, Jake," _she said quietly. _"My daughter has always been a warrior. She saw an enemy trying to harm the people, and she did what she had to to protect those around her."_

"She shouldn't have had to," Jake murmured bitterly, too drained to translate his thoughts into Na'vi. "I shouldn't have made it so goddamn easy for that thing to walk in and lead its buddies into the shelter. I shouldn't have been giving a goddamn speech while they were getting ready to slaughter us all!"

"You posted guards. You gave them guns and radios. You warned them that the Machines might come wearing skin over their metal, as Marcus Wright did." Mo'at sighed. "You did everything you could. Everything an Olo'eyktan should. You tried to prepare us, to rekindle our spirits."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't enough."

Suddenly, Mo'at stood up, glaring down at Jake. _"You will STOP that babyish whining, right now!" _she commanded. _"My only living daughter lies burned and drugged at my feet. Her sister was taken from me – _murdered_ – in the prime of her life, and I have been a widow for the past year. Do you have ANY idea how hurt I am right now? How angry? How very, _very_ easy it would be for me to give in to self-pity? DO YOU?!"_

Jake rocked back on his knees, stunned by the sheer emotional force of her outburst.

Mo'at glared down at the Avatar, her eyes blazing like molten gold. _"Jake Sully, one year ago, you proved you were a grown man and a worthy mate for my daughter. Now, stop whining, grow up, and _act_ like it! If I have to swallow my pain and keep going, Toruk Macto can damn well do the same!"_

For a long moment, Jake just sat there, openmouthed. Then he rose to his feet, nodding respectfully to his mother-in-law. "You're right. I'm sorry," he said in English, then cleared his throat. _"Thank you for helping me to … wake up from my self-pity. Next to you, I've got no right to complain."_

Mo'at nodded. _"Better. Now, I assume you have some kind of plan for when the trees and mists can no longer hide us?"_

Jake shrugged. _"We run. That's all we can do, really. Maybe try to head north into Nayaba territory, see if they'll let us stay with them while we tend the wounded and regroup. Meet up with the other clans there."_

Mo'at shook her head. _"It will not work,"_ she said matter-of-factly. _"The flying Machines move faster than an ikran at top speed. Even with a night's head start, with all our wounded and young children, I doubt we could outrun them that far. We would be found, cut off and butchered by midday tomorrow."_

Jake winced. He had hoped that they might be able to keep going until sundown, when the local plant life would light up and hide them again, but Mo'at was probably right. With so many injured clan members and youngsters, they wouldn't be fast enough to outrun the Machine patrols that long. _"Do you have a better idea?"_ he asked.

Mo'at crossed her arms, thinking hard. _"We cannot flee our enemies. And we have no place to make a stand against them. Even in our tunnels, they overwhelmed our defenses. The only option I can see is that we go on the offensive: strike at them like we did at Old Hometree, before they can strike at us. So far, that has been our only victory."_

Jake felt like his eyes were about ready to pop out of his head. "Attack _them?_ How? We've lost too many people, and most of them were warriors who stayed back to keep the Machines away from kids and civilians."

Mo'at gestured with her arm, indicating the camp. _"We have lost two in ten, Jake Sully. Possibly three in ten, with so many wounded. But the other eight are still on their feet … and they are angry. Even a weaver knows how to use a bow and knife."_ She glanced toward the Tree of Voices. _"And in your vision, you saw the other clans coming to help us. You said we would wait for them to gather to the tunnels, then march together on _Hell's Gate_."_ Her eyes met Jake's. _"What if we don't wait? What if we tell the clans to meet us at _Hell's Gate_ instead?"_

"It would be a nightmare. Clans from different places, traveling different distances, straggling in at different times … there'd be no way to coordinate it." Even as he spoke, though, he remembered the image of the caravan: at least two or three of the Pa'li Clans, heading for the rainforest basin. _If even that one group arrives by morning… and maybe some of the Ikran Clans…._

_"But they are coming. If we can find a way to draw out the Machines … keep them off-balance and distracted until the others arrive … could we not weaken them enough to be finished off later?"_

It was bold, risky, and utterly insane. Then again, the second-best option depended on outrunning two-dozen heavily armed jet aircraft on foot.

As Jake stood thinking, he spotted three figures pushing toward him: two Na'vi, and a smaller shape that could only be Marcus. "Jake!" Norm's voice exclaimed, "We got a call in from Max!"

"Yeah? What's the word?"

"Well, the good news is that they haven't been caught. All the radio-detonated charges are in place, and they've got another ten for when the fighting starts. I mean, if you're still planning on hitting Hell's Gate anytime soon…."

Norm trailed off, glancing around at the wounded and crippled. "I guess that's a no-go, huh?"

Lehrrap growled, ears laid back in frustration. _"We must make the Machines pay for what they have done. But after losing so many, only hours ago…."_

Jake sighed. "What's the bad news?"

"Well, the bad news is that Skynet is building more than a time machine at Hell's Gate. Max says it's building this whole array of launch tubes. There could be as many as three hundred missiles ready by tomorrow night."

"That's a hell of a lot more than they'd need for shooting down our ikran riders," Jake said. After the attack on the shelters, it was looking like the Omaticaya were down to about seventy or eighty able-bodied _ikran macto_. Normally, the clan boasted over a hundred.

Marcus shook his head. "They're long-range, Jake. My guess is Skynet's looking to hit every tree-city on the planet. They could be some kind of cruise missiles. Or…."

Jake felt a cold lump in the pit of his stomach. "Or nukes…?"

"Well, we already know Skynet had enough radioactive crap to build one of them. If it can build enough, set them off all over Pandora…."

"Oh my God," Norm murmured, his golden eyes wide with horror. "Three _hundred_ nuclear weapons? It would be … I mean …"

"It would be Judgment Day," Marcus said grimly. "And if those missiles are pure Skynet tech, I'm betting they're even nastier than the hijacked ICBM's it used on Earth."

Jake took a deep breath, trying to stop his head from spinning. Only hours ago, he and the rest of the clan had been running for their lives. They were weakened, exhausted. And now this…?

"Jake," Mo'at said softly, "if these new weapons are so terrible, and can attack so many places in the world at once … Eywa herself might be harmed, even more than when the Well of Souls was destroyed."

"Radiation," Norm whispered. "Enough to cloud the sky, leach into the soil, and kill every living thing on Pandora."

_"Impossible!"_ Lehrapp exclaimed. _"You, who have seen Eywa's might unleashed against the Sky People, are suggesting that she would allow such a thing?"_

_"He is right, Lehrrap,"_ Mo'at said quietly. _"If the Machines indeed have the power to poison every living thing in our world, Eywa herself might cease to be. She is as much a part of us as we are of her. No trees, no animals, no People … no Eywa."_

"And no competition for Skynet," Jake added. "I'll say this for the Machines: when they decide to wipe you out, they're pretty goddamned thorough about it."

Norm sat down, hanging his head. "So that's it," he murmured. "Game over. There's nothing we can do."

Jake took a deep breath, summoning what remained of his resolve. "Maybe, maybe not." He glanced at his mother-in-law. "Before you came over, Mo'at and I were talking about hitting Hell's Gate tomorrow morning."

_"What?!"_ The words exploded from three different mouths at once.

"Jake, there's no way!" Norm exclaimed. "We'd need all the clans' help just to take out those Hunter-Killers! And you said they won't even be here until tomorrow, let alone organized and ready to fight!"

_"I am willing to die to avenge our brothers,"_ Lehrrap said doubtfully, _"but only if there is some chance of actually defeating our enemies! You speak of sacrificing the entire clan, in a battle we cannot win!"_

"Hey!" Marcus shouted, silencing both of them. "Look, if there's one thing Connor taught us in the Resistance, it's that our only chance is to be unpredictable. Take the risks. Trust your gut. Do the craziest, most illogical, most balls-out insane thing you can think of, because that's the one thing Skynet can never develop a contingency plan for. And I can guarantee you, it won't expect a full-on offensive against Hell's Gate right now."

"Right," Norm quipped, "because we _can't_ attack it now. For God's sake, we all just barely escaped with our lives! The clan needs time to recover."

Jake shook his head. "We wouldn't get it anyway. It's either pack up and run for our lives, or pack up and take the fight back to the Machines. And frankly, we're all just as likely to get killed either way."

_"I know which one I would prefer,"_ growled Lehrrap. _"Still, how can we take Hell's Gate without the support of the other clans?"_

"We can't," Jake agreed, "but hopefully we won't have to." He turned to face the Tree of Voices. "I'm going to try and send the other clans a message: We gather in the forest north of Hell's Gate tomorrow morning. If we can draw the Machines outside their defenses, enough of the other clans may arrive in time to finish them off."

_"And," _Mo'at added,_ "if the Sky Net is facing an attack on its own ground, it will have fewer flying Machines available to search the forest." _She turned to Jake._ "If you lead our warriors into battle against Hell's Gate, I can lead the wounded and children to safety further north. You will be able to fight without restraint."_

"This is crazy!" Norm cried, throwing up his hands. "You're talking about taking on an army of hundreds of Terminators, two dozen Hunter-Killers, and God knows what else Skynet has been building for the past three days! It's a suicide mission! Not to mention that the minute it spots us gathering, Skynet could launch a _nuclear warhead_ and blow us to kingdom come!"

"Not if they're grounded," Marcus said thoughtfully. "I'll give Max a call, have him see if he can sabotage the missiles without dousing us all with fallout. If they're all just sitting in one place…."

"Do it," Jake agreed. "And tell him to be ready before sunrise. We'll make our way there while the jungle's still scrambling their sensors, then hit them before the jamming wears off."

"All right. But what are we doing about their air support? We've got, what? Eighty dragon riders? And only forty plasma guns for everyone, including our infantry? Those are crappy odds against thirty armed and armored H-K's. And you've seen how they mow down ground troops."

Jake scratched his chin. "I don't know," he admitted. "A year ago, we took down at least that many gunships, even before Eywa came in to finish them off. But that was up in the mountains, where the flux vortex screws up their sensors…."

"Leave that to me," a new voice called out. Startled, Jake turned around … and beheld Neytiri, standing on her own two feet, eyes bright and alert. In the light of the Tree of Voices, her cyan skin took on a luminous, almost spectral appearance.

"Neytiri!" he cried, rushing toward her. Neytiri took another step closer, but winced as her full weight fell on her injured leg. Jake watched her grit her teeth, then force herself onward, moving by sheer force of will. "Neytiri, you shouldn't be up like this. You can barely stand, let alone walk."

"And well I know it," she replied, letting her mate come up and take hold of her waist, using his strength to take some of the strain off her bad leg. "But I cannot lie down and nap while my people are suffering, either." Before Jake could force her to lie back down, Neytiri let out a loud, high-pitched call. There was a stir in the branches overhead, and within moments, Neytiri's ikran descended to the forest floor, wrapping one wing protectively about her rider.

Neytiri offered a tired smile. "Fortunately, when my legs are tired, I can borrow wings."

* * *

As always, reviews are greatly appreciated.


End file.
